Guardian
by Rocket Owl
Summary: Some programming runs deeper than factions, ex or otherwise. Transformer-Human friendship, OC's plus a Wrecker.
1. Commencement

**Author's Notes**: Hello precious readers!  
Some notes about this fic: It is my first ever published fanfiction! So if you'd be so kind as to critique, point out typos, offer help or advice, etc etc, it'd be very much appreciated. I'm doing this for fun in my spare time, but hopefully I'll be able to update often.

This fic is set in a modified post DOTM setting. That being said, expect spoilers for the trilogy to come up now and again.

The Guardian protocols that are heavily featured in this fanfic were conceived by Khalthar, who has been very patient with me as I bumble around with the pm system and who has offered pointers and help for this fic along the way. He's graciously given me permission to use the Guardian protocols, so go check out his works! Specifically, 'Alone Nevermore,' www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/s/7741834/1/Alone_Nevermore where I first discovered him and his idea. Go give him some love!

This fic is rated T, mostly for language and some violence.

And, lastly, the infamous disclaimer: I own nothing of the Transformer's universe. I can only claim Danny and Bonebite as beings of my own creation.

* * *

**Guardian**

**1-Commencement**

Temperature: 46.3º F/7.94º C. Local time: 05:34. The sky, overcast. Lighting, minimal.

He was going to rust if he stayed out here much longer.

The rain from the night before left a sheen of moisture on everything exposed; the pavement reflected the dying streetlamps, puddles and tiny streams of water dotted the sidewalk, and cold droplets covered his black chassis like dew in a spider's web. The organics, the... humans, as they called themselves, hadn't seem much concerned about the extra moisture. They simply produced little devices that expanded over their heads to shield themselves from it, or pulled their coverings closer, and moved hastily. Apparently water didn't have much of a damaging effect on them, unlike his kind.

Bonebite huffed out of his vents in mild annoyance, startling a nearby dog who'd been rooting around in the waste receptacles that humans seemed to have everywhere. He didn't have anywhere to go. As a former Decepticon, it was highly unlikely the Autobots were going to welcome him with open arms, especially after what had happened in Chicago with Sentinel Prime. And as a traitor to the Decepticons themselves, well, he was better off out here on his own.

The anger came easily, and frustration along with it; it was still second nature to rage and roil, even after denouncing Megatron and the Decepticon cause. There weren't many places to park that weren't 'owned' by some human or other, and he didn't want to borrow trouble. But it meant that he had to stay out here in the public parking lot in the middle of this dank, dark city, sulking like a chastised sparkling as he waited for... something.

Something was going to happen. It always did. If it wasn't a surprise call to Egypt or a mass comm call proclaiming that the AllSpark had been found, it was that Optimus Prime had been resurrected or that Cybertron had appeared over Earth. And, most commonly for him, it was other Decepticons coming to take out a traitor. The numerous encounters had always been a fight for his life, and so far he'd been strong enough to best all who came after him. He'd offlined many Cybertronians while within the Decepticon faction. Leaving them hadn't changed his abilities or skills, a fact which his former comrades seemed to have forgotten.

If there was one thing Bonebite knew about his current situation, it was that it wasn't immediately threatening his life, and that was more than he could say about many cycles in the past. And yet, he was bored to the Pit and back. All he did these days was hide and wait and hide some more, occasionally catching a few breems of recharge here and there. His energon was running low, but short of raiding the NEST base there really wasn't a way to get more.

And so, he waited.

* * *

It was going to be another chilly, wet day, and all the more miserable until the sun could come out and dry up Danny's clothing. Running a hand through short, damp black hair, Danny was at least looking on the bright side of things while shuffling into a public parking lot. It was the closest thing to a shower to be had in a long time, and better, it was free.

Still, it did mean stiff joints and chilled muscles, both of which made moving around a lot difficult until warmed again. Given that Danny was in a particularly sketchy part of town, having spent the night under a tiny balcony nearby and barely shielded from the rain, the morning was starting out less than optimal. Regardless, the young vagrant was going to have to wait to dry out before moving again.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Danny dropped the bag and sank to the ground against the brick side of a building. Not, perhaps, the best resting place, but nobody could kick the vagrant out of here. At least not for another few hours while the sun finally started rising.

* * *

Temperature: 50º F/10º C. Local time: 08:34. The sky, light overcast. Lighting, increasing.

Joors had gone by with absolutely nothing of interest happening, at all, save for a group of humans coming into the parking lot to...what was it... 'Smoke'.

As it turned out, waiting was just as boring this orn as it had been for many orns in the past. Bonebite finally decided that he'd have to move to a secluded place and transform, if only to get the water off so he wouldn't_ rust , _when a commotion at the edge of the parking lot caught his attention. The smoking humans, five, or, six, there was one on the ground, were fighting. Fighting each other? That'd be fun. But... no. Five against the smallest human, flailing their limbs and extremities at it.

He quickly ran over the last couple breems of his sensors' memory to figure out what caused it. The smallest human, a scrawny creature that seemed to be just shy of adulthood, had been minding it's own business in the corner. The many baggy, tattered coverings and hunched posture had caused him to disregard the human the moment it had entered the parking lot to sit down against the wall, and he cursed himself for his inattentiveness. The five attackers, the smokers, had wandered into the parking lot only half a breem ago, and he'd tracked _them_ at least. One of them had pointed the scrawny human out to the others and they'd crowded close. The scrawny one had risen to its feet at their approach, obviously wary. The larger humans had promptly grabbed at Scrawny, trying to take something from its grip. A quick internet search told him it was a 'Sea Bag.' Scrawny had had the gall to throw a punch at the larger human's face, and its comrades came to its aid and began physically assaulting the smaller organic.

Which brought them to the current situation of Scrawny splayed across the damp ground, coughing up some red gunk... blood, he believed it was called... and weakly trying to push itself back up into a sitting position. The five assailants had taken the bag and dumped it out on the ground, snatching up a few items before fleeing with those odd vocalizations Bonebite had learned were called 'laughter.' And yet, he couldn't see much that was humorous about the situation. While he'd been a Decepticon, that didn't mean he enjoyed the pain of others when they'd done nothing to warrant such hostility, and _especially not against such dishonorable odds._

It was partly thoughts like that that had caused him to leave the Decepticons in the first place.

Scrawny slowly gathered up the fallen items- what looked like a 'pocketknife,' some sort of electronic rectangle with wires sticking out of one end, several 'pens' and 'pencils,' a... an odd book that seemed to be unlined, and a roll of silvery stuff that his sensors told him would be sticky to touch. Then Scrawny sat back against the wall with the bag tucked close against its chest, wiping away some of that blood stuff from its mouth. The reaction seemed odd to him; was Scrawny used to such treatment? He'd seen only one other mugging while in this parking lot, and the victim, a female, had cried out shrilly until help and come, and even after she was safe had whined and made herself a nuisance. Scrawny's reactions were an odd contrast.

Further scans revealed that his first guess as to Scrawny's age had been more or less correct. The little creature was still just a sparkling, albeit one close to adulthood. Looked bulky under all those coverings, but his scan showed otherwise. Malnourished, possibly stunted in growth it was so small, and it made it difficult for Bonebite to tell whether or not Scrawny was female or male simply by looking. The punch Scrawny had thrown hadn't had much strength behind it, another testament to the lack of proper care. Shaggy, short dark hair that spiked up a bit in the back(this seemed natural, as far as Bonebite could tell), and oddly light eyes. Blue, like an Autobot. Bonebite clicked to himself thoughtfully. How odd. Didn't humans try to hold onto their offspring until at least the second decade? How strange to find one outside and alone.

And... how concerning. His spark lurched as he reviewed the fight again, anger coursing through him like red hot metal before he forced his processes to slow. Those humans had harmed a sparkling, had possibly damaged it, despite the sparkling being of their own kind. Outnumbered and outmatched, Scrawny had put up a fight even though it'd been obviously futile. Bonebite could respect that, foolish though it was. Then he had to hold in a laugh; a _Decepticon_ like himself, ex or not, respecting an organic___. Ha!_

But there was something undeniably interesting about this organic in particular. Something that drew his attention towards it and made him focus more processes than normal on it. He was concerned about the damage Scrawny had received in the fight, and wondered if there was anything he might be able to do to help.

Help.

The thought struck him like a shot from a cosmic rust gun. He wanted to help an organic? Slag, he should've deleted those protocols after all...

Suddenly, Scrawny looked right at him, blinking wearily as it looked him over.

Ah, right. His alt form was large and was the only vehicle in the entire parking lot at the moment. No wonder it'd finally caught the human's eye. Scrawny watched him for a few seconds before getting up and walking. Not towards him, but out along the sidewalk and down the street. Bonebite waited an astrosecond or two before turning on his engines and following after.

He could question his motives later.

* * *

Danny was becoming paranoid. There were no two ways about it. The classic symptoms that consisted of being constantly watched and growing anxiety plagued her, and seeing that damned truck every few minutes just made her feel twitchier.

She knew it was the same truck because it had intricate white celtic knotwork painted on the front, right behind the lights and over the wheel wells, that made it instantly recognizable. She'd seen it that morning in the parking lot after those assholes kicked the shit out of her, and the weird feeling of being watched starting around then. It'd been interesting to see a car that big and shiny in a parking lot in the bad part of town. It was a black Ford F250, which wasn't exactly a pushover model. The custom work on it? She'd been surprised it hadn't been stolen yet, quite frankly.

Danny'd left the parking lot and rubbed at her busted lip. Oh, yeah, that was going to smart for a while. It'd been when she was turning a corner that the truck had gotten her attention again. It was driving up the street behind her, slowly despite the lack of traffic. The front windshield was heavily tinted and she couldn't see who was driving, and this unnerved her more than she expected it to. Shrugging it off and trying to ignore the itching between her shoulders under the feeling of being observed, she scampered across the intersection and made for the cafe at the end of the block.

It was a small place, some sort of Frenchy type of theme that she'd never really been able to understand. It was clean, though, and the food was always good. Seats outside and inside for variety, with a red cloth awning to cover the exposed seats from most of the elements. A waist-high fence separated the outdoor seating from the sidewalk, wrapping around the corner of the building to encompass boths sides of the block. It was broken in only two places, one for an emergency exit route, the other for the proper entrance that was almost always manned by one employee in particular at this time of day.

"Danny girl! Where you been hidin' all week?" Danny couldn't stop the grin that crossed her face when the familiar, friendly voiced called out to her. A tall young man with light hair and a cheery smile waved her over from his place at the host station on the sidewalk. A few patrons sitting in the outside tables nearby glanced her way before averting their gaze. Invisible homeless. Danny ignored it when a few of them coughed and tried to discreetly cover their noses. Not an odorless problem, apparently, although she was fairly certain that at least some of those reactions were overly dramatic. Wasn't like she could really do much about it at the moment, anyway.

"Hey, Nathan." Her smile turned to a full-fledged grin as she dropped her sack at her feet to rest her arms, standing slightly to the side of the podium so customers could still approach and otherwise making it obvious that she wasn't the head of a line. At least he didn't seem to notice, or mind, the smell. "How've you been?"

"Better'n you, by the looks of it. What happened to your face?"

"This?" Her tongue darted out to lick her busted lip, and she was aware that her cheek'd been scraped against the concrete of the parking lot. "I was introduced to a fist and we didn't get along."

"No shit. Need anything beyond the usual?"

"I can't today. The jerkwads took my money." What little there had been. Nathan gave her a sympathetic, slightly worried look. He quickly put on a cheerful mask when a pair of customers approached, greeting them with charm before moving to get them seated. Danny watched his progress through the restaurant as he seated the patrons indoors, tossed their responsibility over to a proper waitress, and returned. He seemed to have made up his mind about something by the time he'd come back.

"Listen, I hate to see you out here like this. I'll get you something. Won't be much, I'm afraid, but it'll be free. 'Kay?" He smiled and patted her shoulder comfortingly before hurrying inside to make good on his deal. Not without one last check for more incoming patrons; he could only get away with so much before the manager took his head and mounted it on the cafe's mantle.

Best friends since childhood, Nathan and Danny had always stuck their necks out for each other, whether it be against bullies three times their size or managers who wouldn't like an employee leaving his station to spot a bum a meal. It was good to have friends in high places, or at least places that served food.

Danny leaned against the podium that served as the host station, idly reading the menu for lack of anything better to do until the feeling of being watched returned. She jerked around suddenly, and nearly recoiled at the sight of the black truck, parked along the street right behind her. There was no one inside it at the moment, she could tell, now that she was close enough to look past the tinting. Her curiosity got the better of her and she walked over to peek inside.

The interior looked comfortable from what little she could see. Leather? And that symbol on the steering wheel was not a Ford one. Custom, maybe, like the paint? Kinda cool to look at, actually. Some sort of pointy, jagged face from the looks of it. She must've been staring for a while because someone tapped her shoulder, causing her to jump a mile.

"Easy, Danny. Just me. Here." Nathan was back and handed her a brown paper bag, putting his hand on her shoulder again. "Hey, you gonna be alright?" He was frowning now, concerned, not seeming to pay much attention to the goddamn car behind her. She realized the look on his face probably had a lot to do with her skittishness right now, and plastered on a big, fake smile for her friend.

"Yeah. Fine. Thank you." The young woman was edgy, her voice low and crisp. He caught her hand as she tried to slip off, his tone chiding.

"Seriously. If something happens, if you run into trouble..."

"-Give you a ring. I got it." She relaxed a little, and he followed suit. "Thanks, Nathan." Her friend didn't seem entirely convinced, but he still shot her one last smile before his manager, a flabby man with a mustache and a seriously bad taste in ties, suddenly came outside, asking just what the hell was going on here, anyway, and made a beeline straight for her. With a wave and a laugh, Danny skittered away, easily outpacing the man as she went to find a good place to enjoy her meal.

The car followed.

* * *

Temperature: 60.5º F/15.8º C. Local time: 14:12. The sky, cloudy. Lighting, moderate.

For such a tiny human, Scrawny seemed to attract trouble wherever it went. First had been the incident a few joors ago where he'd first spotted it getting attacked by other humans. Next had been the angry human coming out of the 'restaurant'- the internet was invaluable, now that he was making an attempt to understand the humans- who the tiny human had laughed at and fled from. Then there'd been an altercation between it and a human who rode around in what looked like Barricade's alt form- 'police.' Scrawny'd spent too much time sitting on the steps of a multi-dwelling place as it consumed its... sandwich? What odd names. After that, it'd moved to the more deserted parts of the industrial district. Each and every interaction between Scrawny and another hostile human made his energon boil a little and made him want to reach into his subspace, pull out his blade, and rend the little human's foes... slowly.

Oh. Oh frag it all to the Pit. His Guardian protocols had _activated_. Really _had activated_, and his Charge was a human. Slag, slag, _slag, _what a mess to stumble into. He should've been much more careful about this, should've dealt with the protocols sooner.

Scrawny seemed to have picked up on the fact that he was following it, if its constant, irritated looks his way meant anything. So he'd backed up a bit and mostly tracked the small human via sensors. The closed down industrial district was deserted save for his Charge, so it wasn't hard to follow the human by temperature variations alone. Now that he had, it seemed much less stressed and stopped looking behind for him as often. The thought that his Charge was now a little more at ease made Bonebite relax, and the fact that he was relaxing over an organic's well-being was irritating him to no end.

However, things couldn't continue in this fashion. While Bonebite was usually a mech of patience and observation, preferring to gather information before ambushing to deal punishing blows, he knew that he'd have to make proper contact with Scrawny soon. He was still coming to grips with the fact that he'd accidentally taken her as a Charge, but since he had, he'd better make the best of it. And it'd be too much of a hassle to just follow Scrawny wherever it went, not to mention demeaning. He'd rather just lock the little organic up in the cab of his alt form to make life simple for everyone involved. But the protocols rebelled vehemently against that; it'd stress out Scrawny, and he _had_ to make sure Scrawny was safe and content. It was his _job_ now.

That was not to say he liked this. _At all. _Bonebite should've done what every Decepticon did and deleted all the protocols early on; a bit of emotional weakness had stayed his hand upon first joining the destructive faction, and then he'd just been too complacent to bother deleting them once Cybertron and most of its people had fallen. And now they were activated... on a human, no less! There'd be no getting rid of them until Scrawny was dead. And now, of course, because Primus had a sick sense of humor, he couldn't let that happen. The mere thought of harm to his new Charge made his spark jerk in his frame. And his energon simply froze in his lines when he even considered doing the deed himself.

Bonebite had been so deep in thought as he processed information and tried to reach a course of action that he hadn't realized he'd rounded the corner too close behind Scrawny and was spotted by the tiny human. He braked suddenly, waiting to see what it'd do now that he'd been discovered here on an empty street. Too late to hide that he'd been quite _obviously_ following it. Scrawny was staring at him, then raised one hand to it's face, digits pointing to both of its optics, before slowly turning the hand to point the index finger at him. The meaning was clear: 'I'm watching you.'

And then Scrawny turned and took off at a jog, raising its third finger over its shoulder without so much as looking back. He had to pause and do another internet search to ascertain the meaning. Then he let out a huff of mild amusement through his vents. Such gall for such a tiny creature.

* * *

That horrible thing was _still _following her? It was fucking possessed! First in the parking lot where she'd lost all her money, then outside of Nathan's workplace where she'd gotten chased out by the manager, then nearby the stoop and the problem with the cop and his 'loitering' bullshit, and finally again just a few blocks ago. It just kept appearing around her, and it seemed to be cursed because whenever it did, problems arose. There was no driver, that much she'd been able to make out for certain, and that had her adding points to the 'demon car' theory. Danny shook her head, wondering if she was just having an elaborate hallucination. She had hit her head pretty hard against pavement that morning.

"Keep it together, Danny." She muttered to herself, approaching a payphone. This counted as trouble, right? Getting followed by a big creepy car was totally trouble, so she had a phone call to make. Stickers and graffiti decorated it like an elaborate mural, stylized irises overlapping the rim to make a frame for the artwork. One side had once held a poster to some film or other, and though the title had long since been torn off, the intense gaze of the poster boy remained. That got a morbid chuckle out of her as she fished around in her many pockets for the quarter, two dimes, and the pair of nickels that she knew were in there. Figures she'd think she was being watched and then run into eyes everywhere. The coins went into the phone, buttons were pressed, a few rings went by and Danny was finally checking in with her friend.

"Nathaniel Zukerman, who's calling please?"

"Nathan... hey, uh, it's Danny." Okay, she hadn't entirely thought this out. How was she supposed to say this? 'I think a car is following me and it might be possessed or on remote controls because I can't see a driver, what should I do?' Yeah, no. "I think I'm being followed."

"I... What?" Nathan sounded incredulous, but bounced back right away. "By who? Can you get a look at his face? Or- or her face, or whatever?"

"No." She replied, truthfully enough. "It's more of a... it's kind of... it's a car." '_Real smooth, Dan.'_

"Okay. How many people in the car? Can you tell-?"

"No, no." She interrupted him, resisting the urge to take another look around the area for it. "Just a car. No one inside it." The silence on the other end that followed this bit of information had her biting her lip.

"...Okay." A slow exhale, static partly clouding the speaker of the payphone. "Well, where are you now?"

She opened her mouth to reply before turning sharply as the black vehicle rolled to a stop at the nearby T-Intersection, not fifty yards behind her. Nobody else was around, nothing else stirring, no footsteps or car alarms or crows calling, not even a breeze. Just the steady, faint rumble of the damned cars engine. Creepiest fucking thing in the world. It was _definitely_ watching her. Danny slapped sapience on the normally inanimate object with ease, more concerned with survival than her mental health. She could fix that later.

"Danny?"

"What? Oh, I, uh, I'm at..." The car began rolling forward, its headlights flicking on once. Greeting or threat? Did it even mean anything at all? The car picked up its pace as it drove through the intersection, already within twenty meters of her. "I gotta go." And she dropped the phone and sprinted for her life, leaving the worried voice of Nathan far behind.

The engine revved behind her and she grabbed the pole of a bus sign, using it to assist her through a sudden, sharp ninety degree turn into an alley, although she skidded a little upon getting her footing and got a rock stuck in her left shoe. The sharp stab of pain made her hiss, but she ignored it as best she could and kept running, dodging between broken debris and dumpsters. The car, going too fast to make the turn properly, passed the entrance of the alley and was forced to back up to manage the maneuver. It bought her some precious time to dart out the other end of the alley and search for cover.

The only building that wasn't boarded up or partially collapsed was what looked like a huge old warehouse. Windows were broken in and the metal that helped make up the building was rusted, and the thing was positively covered in spray paint and old worn posters like everything else around here, but it'd have to do for now, especially since the rock was making it aggravating to move at any sort of speed.

Danny sprinted into the cool shade of the building, looking around for anything to hide in, behind, under... and there was nothing. Nothing but the odd bit of rebar or a piece of a broken wooden box; a few sheets of plastic here and there, and the remains of the shattered windows littering the ground near the walls; that was it. The warehouse was empty and open-floored. Not even another room to sneak into. But the main doorway was not in line with the alley, and she was far enough into the building that she figured she wouldn't be immediately spotted. Rock first, better hiding spot later.

Quickly hopping up and down on one foot, she finally managed to pull her oversized left boot off and sighed in relief, shaking out the rock. It came out, one jagged edge tinged red, and she glanced down at her foot. Apparently it'd been sharp enough to give her a nice cut along the arch which was now oozing blood through the ratty old socks. Fan-fuckin'-tastic. It was probably going to get infected, too, unless she could swipe some alcohol somewhere.

A whirr-click caught her attention, and she looked to the huge doorway as a shadow fell across what had been lit of the room.

The fucking truck. It was the fucking truck straight from hell, and it was blocking her in.


	2. Familiarize

**Guardian**

**2-Familiarize**

Temperature: 60º F/15.5º C. Local time: 14:42. The sky, N/A[indoors]. Lighting, dimmed[indoors].

Finally he had the Scrawny cornered in an enclosed, deserted space. His energon reserves were far too low to chase his new Charge for long, so he was pleased with the stroke of luck. Scrawny had frozen upon seeing him, holding a shoe in one hand. That made him focus on the fleshing's now injured foot, and he growled in frustration. How was he supposed to keep this organic safe from _itself_?

Without much preamble, he drove forward until he was within four meters of the human and transformed. Scrawny remained rooted to the spot, transfixed as he stood up and stared down at his Charge with dull red optics. Human expressions were hard to read, but he knew wide eyes usually meant shock or delight. He guessed the former in this case.

In all honesty, though, Scrawny's silent and still reaction was a bit of a let down. Most humans tended to start screaming and fleeing when faced with a Cybertronian for the first time, and there was still just enough Decepticon in Bonebite's processes to relish the terror of other beings. Now, though, he wasn't sure what to do, how to broach the subject of his protocols with this organic. This was the closest he'd been with it since the brief breem outside the restaurant.

They stood, staring at each other for several terran seconds, before he stepped forward a little. The movement startled Scrawny out of its stupor. The human suddenly leaned back, cocked its arm, and hurled its shoe. At him. Into his face.

Bonebite was actually legitimately caught off guard by the action, and the object hit him with a light 'thunk' against his faceplates. Such a futile action; he couldn't understand the motivation of doing something that so obviously wouldn't be effective.

But then he noticed that Scrawny had turned tail and run, footsteps fading the farther it got into the building. He started after his Charge, now frustrated. Bonebite just didn't have a lot of power left, and he couldn't afford to keep wasting what little he had on chasing. Catching up wasn't an issue; he was larger, with much longer legs, so closing the gap was actually quite easy. It was actually detaining the human that was the problem. While his fingers didn't end in sharp claws, he didn't want to risk snatching the organic up and injuring it.

So instead he stepped right over Scrawny, blocking the escape route. Scrawny instantly threw itself backwards, trying to pull a complete one-eighty and run out the way they'd come in and slipping to the floor in the process. Even as it scrambled up and tried to keep moving, the tips of his digits took hold of the back of his Charge's many coverings, lifting it off the ground. It surprised him when the human simply squirmed out of the extra coverings, bag and all, and dropped five feet to the ground. He tossed the garments aside and resorted to actually scooping his Charge up, entire hand closing around the midsection this time.

Scrawny instantly started screaming and scrabbling at his metal hand with its blunted nails, beating at it with both fists and feet in desperation. Bonebite had to keep shifting his grip to keep it from hurting itself or escaping while trying simultaneously to avoid damaging it himself. Okay, speech was going to be required if he wanted his Charge's cooperation.

Bonebite had gone many orns without communicating through his vocal processors, and so his first attempt to use it came out as a guttural growl. Scrawny froze at the sound before resuming its antics even more fiercely than before. He was forced so shut down the processor and restart it, hoping it'd clear up the issue.

"Calm down, human." He finally rasped out. Voice rough and edged from lack of use, though hopefully that'd go away the more he used it.

His Charge promptly told him where, with what, and how hard he could mate with himself, in less polite terms. Bonebite let out a gust of air through his vents. Primus, but he could pick Charges, couldn't he.

* * *

Danny had known that any chances of escape had gone the moment the huge metal fingers closed around her and hauled her up. That didn't stop her from howling at the demon car thing and trying to fight her way free of it. It'd snarled at her after a moment or two, but if it thought that it was going to scare her into submission it had another thing coming to it. And then, suddenly, it spoke english to her, and she'd been too furious to process the realization properly.

"I will not harm you. Calm down." It rumbled again. Danny did stop fighting after a few more moments, shooting a glare up at her captor. The demon car's fingers dug into her chest as it held her still, but otherwise it did nothing to injure her. She had the distinct feeling that it resented her, and it certainly had the power to snuff her out if it wanted to, so the fact that she was still alive and in one piece gave her enough pause to consider the robot's request. "I need to speak with you."

"Yeah? What does a rust bucket like yourself have to say to me?" She snapped back, beginning to try and wriggle out of his- really, she was just assuming at this point, but he looked male as far as she could tell- crushing grip again. "What the hell are you, anyway? A demon car? An overgrown toy robot? Because stalking someone doesn't really put them in a listening mood!"

The robot just did his odd sigh again and stared at her with those glowing red eyes until she calmed down again.

"Bonebite. Not 'rust bucket,' or 'demon car,' or 'toy robot.'"

"Ah, fuck. Fine. You were saying, Bonesy?" Resignation written all over her tone, and she gave up trying to slip out of his grip. It just wasn't going to happen. Part of her was still trying to convince the rest that this was all a dream, that she was still out cold in the parking lot and that none of this was actually happening. The hard metal that enclosed her said otherwise.

"Don't call me that, organic."

"Don't call me 'human' or 'organic,' then."

"Very well. What should I refer to you as?"

"Danny. Danielle Coleson, but mostly it's just Danny." Surely this was a dream. Introducing herself to a giant robot-demon-car thing? Maybe she'd been admitted to a hospital somewhere and she just didn't remember it, and this whole thing was a result of the meds. Reality was creeping up on her fast, though.

"Danielle." The pronunciation differed from male to female humans, but he seemed to already know that. "That is a female name. I can assume you are in fact a female of your species?"

"Yeah. What, it's not obvious?" She grumped, tugging again at his fingers. They were really starting to hurt her ribs, and she was going to have an impressive bruise there later. He finally seemed to figure out that he was causing her discomfort and flattened his palm so she was sitting in it, holding onto his thumb to keep her balance. She was becoming more and more at ease the longer they spoke, although she couldn't bring herself to relax entirely. Just because he hadn't outright killed her didn't mean he was to be trusted. Still, might as well relax for what she had a feeling was going to be a very long conversation.

"Your kind is still difficult for me to tell you all apart. Only the pitch of your voice suggests your being female. Your hair is not particularly long, you are malnourished and thus hard to scan, you don't wear the usual clothing females of your species seem partial to, and beyond those cues I find it hard to discern gender in humans."

"Oh. Uh, okay, then." Danny kicked her feet a little, glancing down. Nearly fifteen feet off the ground. There was no way she could try and make another run for it without breaking her legs or ankles in the fall first. And it wasn't like she could outrun the guy anyway, even without injuries.

Danny brought her eyes back up to study the robot himself. Easily a little over twenty feet tall, covered in black and silver armor. He had weapons all over, from what looked like a pair of canons on his arms to a slot in his thigh that held what looked like a huge greatsword. Though, scaled to him, it was probably more like a dagger. The white celtic knotwork that had been painted over the wheel-wells of his car form had shifted while he changed, now both along his shoulders and arching back over his red eyes. A pair of short black horns that swept back from his head, twitching a little with his changing moods, completed the demon robot car from hell look.

Might as well hear what it was he had to say. "So, anyway, Bones, you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes. In the parking lot at the beginning of this terran cycle, I observed you being attacked by others of your kind. In fact, I payed entirely too much attention, and have fixed on you."

"_Fixed_ on me? _What_?"

"I have programming within me called the Guardian protocols. I have fixed on you, Danielle Coleson. You've become my new Charge, and it's my job to protect you now."

"...Oh what the _fuck_?"

* * *

That wasn't exactly the reaction he'd been expecting. Although, Danny had defied his expectations almost constantly. And anyway, he wasn't entirely sure what it was he _had_ been expecting out of her to begin with.

"Guardian protocols can't be reset or deleted once they've activated. I don't like this anymore than you seem to, but we'll have to make the best of our... predicament. Which means you'll need to endanger yourself less often than you already do."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Bones." The little human grumbled, shifting into a cross-legged position on his palm. Her tone was _very_ sarcastic, but he saved that voice imprint into his memory banks anyway.

Bonebite took this moment to lift her up near his faceplates so he could get a good look at her. Dirty, so that might have to be redacted later. The Autobot blue eyes, the short black hair, the thin, delicate features of an underfed human, and a few splotches on her face that furless organics seemed to get when they spent a large amount of time out in the sun. 'Freckles,' according to the internet. All details saved in case he had to pick her out of a crowd of humans later.

"What? Take a picture or something, geez." He didn't feel that that needed a response as he shifted back to holding her out and away a little. "So... Who made you?"

"My creators." What an odd question.

"No shit. I mean what country?"

Ah, that kind of created. "I don't come from an Earth country. My home is... rather, was, a planet called Cybertron."

"Cybertron? So you're an alien?" Slight tone of disbelief there, if he could judge it correctly.

"Yes, relative to you. To me, you are just as alien." Flesh and blood and bones and just general squishiness. Very alien to him indeed. But her previous questions floated through his CPU again. "And you, Danielle Coleson? Who are your caretakers?" It might present problems if her caretakers would be against his presence. Bonebite couldn't abandon his Charge, but he couldn't attack her creators if they tried to keep him away. It'd likely put undue stress and unhappiness on his fleshling.

However, Bonebite noted that this question caused her to frown and look away, busying herself with tending to the wound on her foot rather than look up at him directly.

"Call me Danny. _Please_." Bonebite clicked in affirmation after thinking it over. Perhaps she didn't like her full name and that was why she'd taken on the alias of Danny? Very well, he'd respect her wishes so long as she didn't call him 'Bonesy' again. "And I don't have any 'creators.'" She muttered on as she began binding her foot. "Lived in foster homes, never got adopted, and got kicked out when I turned eighteen. That's pretty much as far as 'caretakers' go for me."

The former Decepticon stilled while he processed what her words and what they meant. Primus. No caretakers? Bonebite brought his Charge to his chest, near his spark, almost without realizing it, his other hand cupping her to him protectively. All sparklings had caretakers, _all_ were raised and protected and cherished. Even the _Decepticons_ looked after their sparklings and nurtured them. True, in many cases it was just so they'd have another strong warrior in their ranks, but they were cared for nevertheless.

Memories of his own sparkling came to him, unbidden, and several of his processes froze as his spark lurched in pain. No, no no no he couldn't let anything happen to Danny, couldn't_ fail_ her as he'd failed his own...

* * *

_'Oh, shit, did I break him already?'_

Danny wasn't sure what to make of this new development. One moment she'd just been finished cleaning up her cut foot, the next, she was pressed to the robot's chest and almost totally enclosed by his hands. She peeked up at his face through his fingers, and it looked like he was in a state of shock. What the hell? Could robots even feel shock? Or surprise, or any other emotion? And anyway, her story wasn't that bad. There was no way it could've set him off like this, could it?

Knowing it was futile, she nevertheless pressed against his chest in an attempt to get some more elbow room. The hands didn't budge an inch. Sighing, Danny finally noticed an odd thrumming feeling coming from the plates under her hands, and she pressed her ear to the surprisingly warm metal. A constant low hum was coming from him, but it fluctuated a little bit between hard and soft. Like a heartbeat.

This realization had Danny jerking back to look up at him again. This thing had a heart? Or whatever the equivalent was in alien demon car things? Suddenly he seemed a lot more... human.

"Uh, Bones? You okay big guy?"

The giant mech started at the sound of her voice and looked down to meet her eyes. His expression still seemed to be locked in on surprise, although it was shifting into stony determination even as she watched. That made her a little uneasy. What was it that he was determined to do?

"I'm fine. I just..." Bones hesitated before continuing, seeming to change topics at the last second. "I'm low on fuel. I need to find more, but the only energon left on this planet is in the possession of the Autobots."

"The what?"

"Ah, other Cybertronians."

"Oh. Well they can just give you some, right? I mean, if you're the same species and they have the only ener-whatsit on the planet they'd be okay with parting with some of it-"

"No. Not to me."

Danny grew wary again, staring up at her new Guardian. "Why? Are you an outcast or some shit like that?"

"In a way. For you to understand, I need to explain some of the history of my people."

Oh, yippee, history lessons. But the idea that it was the history of giant alien robots made it seem much more interesting to Danny than the idea of human history, so she settled down into a more comfortable position in his hand and looked up at him expectantly.

"Hundreds of vorns ago, hundreds of thousands of your terran years, my people split into three factions and began warring amongst ourselves. There were the Autobots, led by the Primes Sentinel and Optimus, there were the neutrals who tried to stay out of the fighting, and there were the Decepticons, led by Megatron, which is the faction I used to belong to. The neutral faction didn't last long. The war raged for many thousands of years, and many of my people fell in the fighting. Megatron eventually conquered Cybertron, but by then it'd been torn apart, and the Allspark had been lost to us."

AllSpark? What the hell was an AllSpark? Bones shifted a hand and held up a finger to forestall her questions before he continued.

"My people were scattered among the stars to look for it. You see, the AllSpark is, in physical form, a cube of incredible power, and many of my people believed it to also be the afterlife. It is one of the only two ways to create sparks for sparklings. And after Megatron ordered the destruction of all femmes, it became the _only _way for my kind to continue. Our very survival as a species depended on finding it. Megatron tracked the AllSpark and landed here on Earth nearly.. sixty? Seventy year ago?" Danny shrugged at him. If there'd been a huge robot leader of an alien faction running around Earth sixty or seventy years ago, she'd never heard of it. "He was kept frozen until only a few short years ago after a small group of Autobots arrived. They fought over the AllSpark and it was destroyed."

Bones went on to tell her about Megatron's resurrection, Optimus's brief death, the call to Egypt, the Fallen's defeat at Optimus's hands, how Sentinel Prime and the Ark had been discovered and brought back, the elder Prime's betrayal of the Autobots, and Megatron's escape from the carnage in Chicago, everything he knew. She'd heard about a huge commotion over in Illinois months ago, and had seen the massive... thing in the sky. It'd been Bones's planet? And the destruction of Chicago had been caused by giant alien robots fighting each other? They'd even damaged it enough to topple a skyscraper and destroy bridges?

Sure, there'd been rumors of aliens being behind the whole thing, even some videos and pictures. Most people who hadn't been there considered it an elaborate hoax to cover up an attack or a failed experiment or something, because who really believed in aliens, anyway?

The theory, however, had been one of the only ways to explain the giant thing in the sky, which this particular alien had just told her had been his home once.

"Damn." Muttered Danny after Bones finished his abridged history lesson, running a hand through her hair. "You mean... A whole city? You guys destroyed a whole city fighting each other?"

"We destroyed our whole planet fighting each other."

"I know, I know, I just- I can't handle this." It was an information overload. "I mean... Okay. Okay, so, so going back to that first thing, your guys, the Decepticons, they killed off all your 'femmes'? You killed your women just because some asshole _ordered_ you guys to? Who the _hell_ thought that that was a good idea anyway?"

"Megatron believed he could use the AllSpark to replenish our numbers. He ordered the deaths of all femmes, Autobot and Decepticon alike, along with many of the sparklings. Most of the femmes avoided fighting in the war, as did a few mechs, to care for sparklings. My people raised sparklings in the same places regardless of factions, at least before the orders came. The areas were _supposed_ to stay neutral to protect the future generations." Bones's tone of voice had shifted, low and dangerous, and Danny shifted uncomfortably under the intensity of his anger. He no longer seemed to be talking to her anymore, nor was he looking at her. "I never killed sparklings, or femmes. I received the orders, same as all other Decepticons, but I never followed through. I couldn't. I made excuses, I stayed far from the neutral cities of Cybertron, I let the other Decepticons do the killing, I _let_ them..."

"Hey hey _hey, easy!_" Bones had begun clenching his hand, and his fingers were back against her ribs and now she was genuinely afraid he was going to crush her. His grip loosened the instant he realized what he was doing, and she coughed a little to get air back into her compressed lungs. "Whoa, Bones, easy. I'm sorry for bringing that up, I didn't know you, uh, felt so_ strongly_ about it." This pretty much proved that the big guy could feel _anger_, at least. Bones hadn't killed sparklings, which she assumed were the children equivalent, and he hadn't killed the women. But he'd stayed a Decepticon despite those orders going out. Danny wasn't sure what to make of Bones with that combination of information, wasn't sure what his morality was. All she did know was that at this moment, he wasn't a threat to her life. Then a thought struck her. "You said you 'used to' belong to the Decepticons?"

Bones looked back to her, face hard to read. Well, harder than usual. "Yes. I left the Decepticons. My way of thinking no longer matched theirs. I have since offlined many of them who believed that there was no... quitting." Danny believed him, her gaze flicking to his canons before back to his face. "Regardless, that doesn't solve my current problem. I have almost no energon left, and nowhere to procure more. Soon I will run out of power and offline, myself."

Danny stared at him. Really, it was a lot to take in at once. First was the impromptu history lesson, then the summary of the last several years of interactions between his kind and hers, and then there was the ongoing war between his people and humanity caught in the middle and now he was saying he was going to die? Was offlining even permanent when it was just a loss of power? She just didn't know enough, and knew too much of everything else at the same time.

There was a headache coming on.

"What are you going to do with the time you've got left?" She finally asked, giving up on trying to deal with all the new information at once and storing it away. She'd deal with the bulk of it later, in small chunks.

"For now, protect you, keep you safe and happy."

"That's what a 'Guardian' does?"

"Yes. I will follow the protocols until the end of my life. Or yours."

His tone was solemn enough to keep any jabs or snarky remarks at bay. Bones was completely serious, and all Danny could do was nod silently at him, as though accepting his help, as though he needed her affirmation. As though she had a choice.

Nevertheless, he seemed pleased with her reaction, or at least he didn't think it offensive. Bones knelt down so she could slip off his hand to the floor from a safe distance, which she proceeded to do.

"I've got a funny idea, Bones. Maybe we can go check out where the Autobots keep their energon stocks and swipe some? I mean, I suppose I could run in and grab some for you. From what you said they wouldn't straight up hurt a human like me." Not that she really believed it would work, but she felt a bit obligated to help him.

* * *

The former Decepticon snorted and gave her a look that pretty much said 'you have got to be kidding me.' "They're unlikely to leave any such stocks unguarded, so you'd run into great difficulty even getting to them. And most energon cubes would be far too heavy for you to drag out with any real stealth. You'd be stopped and caught." Not to mention that fact that many of Bonebite's processes rebelled against the thought of sending her anywhere near an Autobot. An Autobot would definitely try to keep them apart, and his old Decepticon coding added 'danger' to anything Autobot related automatically on top of that. No, there'd be no raiding the NEST base.

Danny paced around in a circle before turning and giving him an apologetic shrug. Almost as though she felt responsible. What an odd little creature, but there was a small part of him that was touched at her concern.

"I don't even know where to _begin_ looking for alien fuel. Sorry, Bones. It'd be a pain to try and gather up enough batteries if you shut down on me."

"I don't run on batteries."

"I'm going to need to find someone who can program a sense of humor into you."

He huffed and she glanced out the windows and asked him what time it was. His internal local clock read 18:03, and he told her so. It'd really taken that long to explain everything and talk to her?

"Tempus fugit." She muttered, and he had to run a translation program.

"Latin. Time flies."

"Yeah, and time breaks, too."

"Tempus frangit?"

"Very good. Read that in an old comic book, once. Never forgot it." Danny went to gather up her belongings, slipping the many coverings back over her body to block out the cold and swinging her sea bag over her shoulder. "Right. I gotta find a place to sleep for tonight, maybe grab another meal if I'm lucky."

Now this was something he could help with.

"My alt form would make a suitable resting place for you during the night." It wasn't quite an offer, wasn't quite an order. Still, her face lit up at his words and she began to bounce around in excitement, which both confused and amused him. Were all humans like this?

"That'd be wonderful! And if more assholes try to take my shit you can just, I dunno, rev your engine or something and scare them off!" It then struck him that she was mostly excited to have a _safe_ place to sleep. The thought that she hadn't been sleeping in safe places chaffed in his circuits, but he forced himself to calm and reminded himself that as long as he had enough power to remain online, he'd provide for her all that he could. If it was a place for her to sleep without fear, so be it. "So let's get food now, then. Although I guess you can't really just walk up to a store an buy stuff, being a giant alien robot and all. And I don't exactly have money."

"Not an issue. I will help you find what you need." He stepped away from her and transformed back into the truck, further amused with her fascination at the process.

"That is _ridiculously_ cool, by the way." Said Danny as he opened a door for her. She clambered into his passenger seat, chucking her seabag into the back as he drove out of the warehouse.

A few breems of silence passed during which she kept looking at the driver's seat, making faces that he wasn't sure how to interpret. Finally, she spoke up again.

"Should I sit there? No offense, Bones, but it's really fucking creepy to see a car go by that has no driver. Sure as hell freaked _me_ out."

Without responding, he formed a holo-image in the drivers seat. Nondescript, just a man with average clothing and generalized features, but human looking. It made his Charge jump in her seat, and he finally had the good sense to buckle a seatbelt on her. That just made her jump again, though luckily he didn't have to yell at her to calm down this time. "It's simply an image, Danny. Does it 'freak you out' any less?"

"Ehh..." She eyed his holo-image with distaste. "Not really, but I guess it's better than nothing. Where are we going, anyway? I thought the restaurants and stuff were mostly over in the northeast quarter?" Danny peered out of the windows at everything that went by and clearly not recognizing the new neighborhoods they were traveling through very much.

"They are, but they get their ingredients and stocks from the trains. We'll grab you some supplies there. Food, clothing, essentials. Whatever it is that your kind needs."

"Like stealing?"

"I can't imagine many other humans in this city have your need."

"I guess... Sure would be nice to get some blankets and real food."

"Would they have those items there?"

"Sure, probably."

"Then you shall have them."

* * *

Overall, the train station raid wasn't that bad. Or even eventful.

Once they'd arrived, Bones drove into the maze of shipping containers and let her know that he'd hacked any camera that could spot them. Then he'd transformed and simply torn the doors of the containers off their hinges, letting her scurry inside to drag out things she needed.

Danny wasn't a hard criminal of any sort, and she really did only take things she needed or really, really wanted. No HD tvs, no computers or laptops, no fancy dresses or suits or designer lamps or any of that. In the end, she left with a new backpack full of food, which she carried along with her sea bag, and several puffy bed comforters.

Not one soul had noticed them come or go, and Danny felt a thrill up her spine at a successful heist. Sure, she'd pulled thefts like that before, even taking fancy cars joyriding, but she'd never done it in the company of a giant _robot_.

Seriously cool.

Bones had driven back into the city when they were done, stopping to rest in an old scrap yard at the other end of town. Danny spread out the comforters in the bed of his truck form and lay on her back while she munched on some dried fruit and stared up at the stars. Or what few stars she could see through the light pollution and smog. She felt fuller and more comfortable than she had in a long, long time. And she had her Guardian to thank for that.

"Hey Bones, for a creepy stalker alien robot car from outer space, you're not half bad."

That got another of his now-infamous huffs out of him. "And for a human, you're not terrible either."

Danny finished off the bag of fruit and curled up under her new blankets, patting the truck while she rested her head on her other arm. Having Bones around, even it was just for a little while, was going to be a massive help. And if she didn't know any better, she might even say they could become good friends.

"Thanks for the help, Bones. Goodnight."

"...Goodnight, Danny."

* * *

_This is RedNova to Soundwave. Bonebite has been located. The traitor is in the company of a human. Nonviolent encounter; human is asleep on his alt form. I'm ready and able to move on them. Pass information to Starscream._

_Information passed. What is your location?_

_Scrapyard in the northwest quadrant of the city. Orders?_

_Terminate them both._

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I'm surprised and pleased with how well this story has been received! Big thanks to all of you who reviewed or added Guardian to your story alerts; it's very nice to know you guys are enjoying this so far.

This chapter was pretty info-heavy, but in next chapter the action should pick up a little, and we'll finally get around to meeting up with the Autobots.

And yes, Soundwave and Starscream are still kicking. Megatron is, too, but he's got bigger fish to fry right now than one lowly traitor. Why kill off perfectly good villains?


	3. Accosted

**Guardian**

**3-Accosted**

Danny awoke to the sounds of metallic screaming and the world shifting beneath her body.

She was suddenly thrown several yards from her resting place and hit the ground hard, stunning her already half-asleep mind, and it was several seconds before she got her senses back. She started scrambling to get to her feet, and she caught a glimpse of Bonebite transforming even as something huge and red barreled into him. Her brain finally catching up, she remembered that no, she hadn't been asleep somewhere in the streets but in the back of an alien truck, that yes, Bonebite was real and not a weird dream, and that finally, he was being attacked by something almost as big as he was.

There was just enough ambient light coming from the city that she could make out basic shapes and colors, thankfully, or else she wouldn't have been able to see them coming in time. She had to jump and dash out of the way as the pair of tussling robots crashed into the ground and slammed through some piles of scrap. The noise was deafening, and Danny had to cover her ears as she watched the fight from behind the ruined remains of a cement truck. Hydraulics strained and metal ground against metal as the two mechs fought, and all she could see clearly before her vision adjusted were their glowing red eyes.

The reddish one, the attacker, was snarling at Bones in a mechanical language as it tried to peel her Guardian's chest armor off with horribly clawed fingers to get at the wiring underneath. Bones roared something back and smashed his fist into the red one's face before using his feet to kick it off him. They both rose quickly to their feet, growling at each other in their odd language before recommencing the fight, and Danny wished she could help Bones somehow. Bones was taller than the other mech, and was built a little more sturdy, so those were good advantages. But it was obvious that he was low on energy, and the smaller mech had a clear advantage of speed on him. .

Danny again had to flee when Bones was thrown back against the cement truck, vaulting over another rusted car and scrambling her way up a scrap heap before looking to see where the attacking mech had got to. It was watching her with its horribly red eyes, so like and unlike Bones's. Where her Guardian's were like smoldering embers, this robot's were filled with boiling hate that transcended all species boundaries. It took a step towards her, clicking angrily, and Danny had a feeling that when it went after her, it wouldn't end as well as it had with Bones.

Before she could so much as turn, it charged up the scrap heap and right towards her.

* * *

Temperature: 41.2º F/5.1º C. Local time: 01:30. The sky, clear. Lighting, dark.

Bonebite had gone into recharge not long after Danny had fallen asleep, and this both concerned and frustrated him. His reserves were low enough that he was slipping into involuntary recharge, and that was not good at all. Worse was the fact that a Decepticon had charged him and he'd only barely come out of recharge in time to throw Danny clear. His sensors hadn't picked up the fellow Cybertronian until the other mech had been within grabbing distance, which just added to his anger. He didn't have enough power to fight against the Decepticon anymore, but he didn't have a choice if he wanted himself, and Danny, to survive.

The Decepticon, a mech who he'd identified as RedNova, obviously had more than enough energy to speed under his defenses and toss him back into an old decrepit human construction vehicle. Pain lanced up his back as something sharp stuck into him, and he was forced to rip himself away from it to defend himself from RedNova. The Decepticon wasn't upon him, much to his surprise, but he caught sight of the mech rushing his Charge.

Bonebite leapt at RedNova and managed to snag his enemies leg, dragging the Decepticon back down the heap. RedNova twisted and sank a clawed hand into Bonebite's side, and he heard more than felt the armor plates there grinding together. Bonebite retaliated by swinging RedNova around and away from his Charge, feeling some of the plating rip free as he did so. RedNova spat and pulled out a pair of rapiers. Bonebite could barely get his arm up and across his face to protect it before RedNova sped into him and sank the blade through it. His systems sent out an alarm as one of the major energon lines in his arm was severed by the blade. He caught the other rapier with his free hand and twisted, snapping the thin bit of metal in half before ripping his injured arm free. RedNova managed to land a punishing kick into his chest plates and sent him flying back.

Bonebite shook his head to clear out his CPU and looked around for RedNova as he quickly got back to his feet, although he wobbled a little more than he wanted to admit. The Decepticon had again deemed him no longer much of a threat and was after Danny. His Charge was fleeing between bits of broken vehicles and appliances, leaping over and skidding under the obstacles. He had to admit that she was fast, but not nearly fast enough. The pursuing Decepticon was gaining on her, clawed fingers outstretched.

He roared in fury and raised his cannon, blasting the smaller mech in the side just as he reached Danny. The human was backpedaling as RedNova was blown down the far side of another heap, sending scrap flying on impact. Then she picked up the pace and raced away from the scrap pile just as RedNova leapt over it and at him, one long and thin blade extended. Bonebite raised his cannon again even as his other, injured hand grabbed the hilt of his dagger, but he was too slow. His vocal processors strained under his howl of pain as the rapier sliced clean through him, rupturing his energon tank and tearing through delicate circuitry. RedNova gave him a cruel smirk before ripping the weapon free of Bonebite's torso carelessly as he pulled a cannon out of subspace to finish Bonebite off. Arrogant little fragger. Could've used his cannon at any time to finish either of them off, but was so confident in his abilities he was saving it for the dramatic final blow.

Still, what put Bonebite within reach of the red mech had also put the red mech within reach of Bonebite. The former Decepticon grabbed RedNova, fingers crushing through the smaller mechs' shoulder as he drove the dagger up and under the chest plates. His aim was true despite the fact that he was losing power in that arm, and he twisted his weapon as he pulled it out along with RedNova's spark, which was impaled on his dagger like a trophy. He let go, and the smaller Decepticon toppled to the ground, light leaving his red optics as he offlined for good.

Bonebite felt the usual thrill through his spark as he triumphed over a foe, and he felt a smile cross his faceplates for the first time in many orns. He ran a self diagnostics as he looked around for his Charge. He suddenly had a horrifying thought; what if she'd been crushed under some of the thrown debris? What if she was injured and unable to return to him? What if she'd been scared off for good and was out there alone and unarmed?

He was so caught up in his worrisome thoughts that he forgot to check his diagnostics program until he'd fallen faceplates-first into the ground, much to his surprise. The damage to his systems was worse than he'd first thought, and he was rapidly running out of power. Apparently RedNova's rapier had been of the vibrating variety, and several of his internal components in both his chest and his arm had been shredded or shaken loose. That, along with several torn major energon lines, meant he might very well offline permanently himself.

His vocal processors were just shutting down when he heard the wail of a siren. Oh, Pit, an energon detector was nearby and had been activated by the fight. Before, he simply hadn't had enough in his tanks to activate the detectors as long as he didn't pass too close, but between RedNova's presence and his canon fire he was now on the grid, and Autobots would be coming. No, no he couldn't get caught by the humans, couldn't be taken apart in a lab and studied. He couldn't leave Danny out here alone.

Speaking of whom, his little human Charge had just entered into his field of vision now, running up to him and trying to shake his head a bit, her eyes wide with fear and... worry.

"Bones! Bones, don't do this to me, man. I only just got my own giant robot I can _not_ lose you this soon." He couldn't respond as system after system began losing power and shutting down. He flicked his optics a little to meet hers, and the tiny motion caused her to drop into a crouch in relief. "Oh, holy hell. Hold on, hold on I'm gonna... I'm gonna fix you. Somehow. Shit, I don't even know the first thing about fixing _regular_ _cars_, let alone_ alien robots..._"

He couldn't warn her not to get near his energon, and his spark seized with fright at the thought of her being poisoned in what was essentially his own 'blood' as she stepped out of his fading sight and down to where the worst of his chest wounds were. Still, Danny seemed to have the good sense to look before touching, because she went on muttering about destroying a perfectly good jacket to make gloves so she could fix his sorry aft. There didn't seem to be much feeling behind her words, though, and she followed up by continuing to talk to him. Trying to reassure him and telling him to stay awake. His pain receptors flared as he felt her tying the largest of his lines to prevent the loss of more energon. That gave him a few extra breems of awareness, and he was able to keep his sensors online just long enough to detect the incoming Autobots. Three of them, and he was downed and helpless now. His audio receptors shut down and cut out Danny's constant chatter. His optics were all that remained powered, and they were fading fast.

Bonebite knew he should've felt angry or disgusted with the fact that a human was rooting around in his insides and tying his lines. He knew he should've felt rage and war lust over the incoming Autobots, and should've feared what they would do to him upon finding him so damaged. Overall, though, he just didn't have enough power to care about much at all. The only thing that _did_ matter at that point was that Danny was safe from RedNova. A red sports car sped across his vision, followed closely by a silver one. A huge black truck parked within his sight just as his optics finally gave out.

What a way to go.

* * *

_RedNova has failed. Bonebite and his human are almost in Autobot possession._

_Somehow this isn't surprising. The little slag was always too cocky for his low station. Now Megatron is going to be fragged off at both of us for letting the traitor slip through._

_Maybe not, Starscream. Think of this as an opportunity. The fleshlings are emotional, and weak. Perhaps we could use this to our advantage._

_I see what you mean. Find out everything you can and get back to me before I report in to our Master. See if there isn't a way to turn this situation around to our advantage._

_I understand. Soundwave out._

* * *

Danny threw away her now ruined jacket in frustration, jumping over the spreading pool of glowing blue stuff to go to Bones's face again. His eyes were no longer lit, and she couldn't hear anything inside him working beyond the faint thrumming of his heart-thing. She'd heard cars driving up close, but she'd needed to see if he was awake and alive, or dead. It wasn't worth protecting a dead thing, but she wouldn't abandon him if he still lived. Since his heart-thing hadn't stopped thrumming yet, she was going to assume he was, at the very least, not all the way dead.

The distinct sound of a robot transforming had her whirling around to look at the newcomers. She gaped as three robots stood up, all of them wielding terrifyingly large weapons. There was a huge, _huge_ black mech that was even taller than Bones, and wider across the shoulders and, well, everywhere else, too. He was definitely a powerhouse and not someone she'd want to contend with even _without_ those truly massive cannons mounted on his forearms. The other two were smaller, but both were carrying blades that were longer than she was tall. A silver one and a red one, both of which were advancing upon Bones. She promptly did the first intelligent thing that came into her head.

Danny leapt between them and Bones and screamed at them.

As far as battle cries went, it could use some work. It showed a little too much of the fear she felt. Not for herself at the moment, but for her badly injured Guardian. Still, it did the job of getting their attention, and suddenly the three extraterrestrials were looking at her. Their optics were all blue, although the big black mech had what looked like a scar... could they get scars? Maybe she better call it a really gnarly scratch- through one of them. Suddenly, making herself noticed didn't seem like such a great idea. What if these guys attacked her like that other red-eyed one had? She couldn't physically protect Bones against them. She couldn't even physically protect herself.

But she steeled her nerves and kept herself between the new mechs and her downed Guardian behind her. The new mechs looked between themselves before the silver one stepped- wait, rolled- forward.

"Human, please relax and move aside. We're professionals." He brandished one long, deadly sword for emphasis. "Cleaning up the bad guys is what we do."

"If you're looking for bad guys, the only one here is _him_." She jabbed her finger in the direction of the red Decepticon's body, though her voice came out a little higher than she'd like. "And Bones here already took him down."

The black mech raised a cannon and fired it at the red's body, blowing the head clean off. Danny was back to gaping. Holy _hell_, that guy packed a doozy of a punch.

"Just to be safe." Rumbled the black, deep baritone sounding very disappointed. Shit, had the guy come looking for a fight?

"Yeah, you missed the fireworks, 'Hide, but so did we. Well, mostly." Remarked the silver before they looked at Bones. Danny backed up and raised her arms as though she could shield her Guardian from the incoming mechs.

"You say he killed the Decepticon?" The red one spoke now, and he had an accent. Italian, from the sounds of it. Wait, they could get accents? This whole 'alien robot' situation was getting weirder by the day, apparently.

"Yeah, if that guy was a Decepticon. But my friend here," Was he really a friend? It felt more like an obligated alliance, but she used the word anyway, "Was badly injured. He needs, I dunno, whatever your equivalent of a mechanic is. And energon. Do you know where I can find either of those things?"

So if red eyes meant Decepticon, then blue must mean Autobot. If the three of them were Autobots, she should be safe talking to them. And maybe, with some luck, she could convince them to help her with Bones instead of killing him.

"Help a Decepticon?" The black one growled and moved for Bones. Danny held her ground, but the silver one put a hand on the big one's chest to stop him.

"You have no idea what you've 'befriended,' boy." The silver one said, gesturing to Bones. "But he's dangerou-"

"For _fuck's sake_, I'm a _girl!_ Do _all_ of you have a hard time telling human genders apart?"

The black and red mechs started laughing at their friend's misfortune while the silver one's eyes widened.

"Very suave, Sideswipe." Chuckled the red one.

"Oh, ah, apologies, ma'am." So the robots could get flustered apparently. Danny flipped 'Sideswipe' the bird before remembering that she needed their help. She sighed and dropped her hand, rubbing the back of her neck and sending a glance back at Bones before looking to the Autobots again.

"Listen. I don't know much about him, I'll admit, but he saved my life from that other Decepticon. I kind of owe him, okay? I could really use some help here because I don't know the first _thing_ about fixing a Cybertronian."

Sideswipe 'blinked' in surprise and had opened his mouth to answer, but it was at that moment that the cavalry arrived. One big jeep full of soldiers in black, all of whom carried weapons. All six of them hopped out of the car and formed a semicircle around Bones and Danny. Danny instantly backpedaled into the fallen robot, hands raised even though none of them had their weapons pointed anywhere except the ground.

"Ironhide, what do we have?" A human voice, that one, and a man stepped forward from the semicircle to distinguish himself.

Big black, 'Ironhide' apparently, responded. "Two Decepticons fought each other, and this one seemed to be protecting the young woman here." There was careful stress put on the word 'woman' and Sideswipe grumbled a little about deceiving looks. "I say kill him, but Optimus wants to find out why a 'Con would protect a human in the first place." What? Optimus? Like Optimus Prime? The very leader of the Autobots wanted to see Bones? Danny couldn't tell if that would be a good thing or not.

"Orders just came from him over the comm. Get this one to Ratchet. Bring them both back to NEST." Added Sideswipe. "Ratchet says to keep him as flat as possible until he can get a look at him." What, was Ratchet like their doctor or mechanic? She sure hoped so.

The soldiers scattered, discussing places to find a good Mack truck and tarps at this time of night with which to bring the fallen Cybertronian in on Danny just leaned against Bones, relieved. From the sound of it, he was going to be getting help. She looked up as the soldier who'd spoken to Ironhide approached her and stuck out his hand.

"Lieutenant Colonel William Lennox. Sorry for the scare, ma'am, but it's our job to take down Decepticons. Apparently your friend here did the deed for us."

Danny slowly shook the offered hand, nodding slightly. "Danny. Er, Danielle Coleson. And I can understand_ that_ if they're all like big red over there." She jerked her chin in the direction of the now-headless robot. "Bones put it down but he took a lot of damage."

"I can see that. Don't worry, we'll get him patched up. Ratchet is the best medic around for these guys; he'll live."

Danny nodded and quickly went to grab her two bags. She returned to Bones' side and waited with him until Lennox gently took hold of her arm and guided her away from her Guardian when a trailer-less Mack cabin with 'Lloyd's Rentals' on the side rolled up and parked nearby. She looked over her shoulder as Sideswipe started hefting him carefully onto the empty bed while Ironhide unfurled a large blue tarp to cover him. A few of the soldiers had sucked up the pools of glowing blue stuff with some odd looking vacuums, and the red Autobot was dismantling the dead Decepticon and storing the extra parts in the spare space on the Mack truck.

After that, everything moved rather quickly. She was introduced to a man named Epps who was apparently going to be driving the Mack truck back to the base. The base was operated by a group called NEST, which was all a big super-secret hush, hush thing, as Lennox made sure she knew before they got underway. Everything was supposed to be kept as secret as possible for the Autobot's safety, or something like that. Danny couldn't really think of many things that would really be dangerous for them here on Earth, sans other Decepticons.

The three Autobots had transformed back into their car forms, and Danny was surprised to see that the red one, apparently called Mirage, was a Ferrari. Well, that explained the accent, kind of. Sideswipe was some sort of cool concept car, and he took the lead on the convoy. Following him was the jeep full of soldiers, plus Lennox. Ironhide, a Topkick from the looks of it, carried Danny behind the Mack truck, and Mirage, took up the rear. Danny stared at the rearview mirror as the city she'd called home for nearly all her life faded into the distance. The Autobots, it seemed, could move well above the speed limits, even on freeways.

Which was a good thing, really, because apparently they were headed for D.C., and that was usually a full day's trip in a car. Lennox had told her they'd get there in the afternoon. All she could do was hope Bones would last that long.

However, that still left a lot of time, hours in fact, in which Danny was sitting silently in the passenger seat of yet another alien robot car, and that was only so much fun for so long. Some conversation was in order.

"So, uh, Ironhide, was it? Your job is taking out Decepticons, huh? How's that going?"

It took a few moments before the truck answered. "Well enough."

Silence again. Danny fidgeted.

"This Ratchet guy... He'll fix up Bones, right?"

"Ratchet's a soft-sparked medic. He'll help your Decepticon for better or worse." Ahh, there was where the anger was coming from. He didn't like Decepticons at all, and recalling all that Bones had told her of his old faction and their war, plus the attack from that other red, she could sort of understand why.

"Ex-Decepticon. He's on... well, my side, I guess."

"No such thing as an ex-Decepticon. They're either active and fighting or offlined. Can't imagine why the 'Con helped you, though, human." And his tone made it clear that it was above his paygrade to guess. If Autobots got paid. Huh, what would they use the money for if they did? She was tired and having a hard time staying on task because of it. Danny forced herself to refocus

"He's my Guardian. He helped me because I'm his Charge and his protocols or whatever makes him protect me at any cost. Or something like that."

Ironhide stayed absolutely silent for a few seconds, and Danny wondered if revealing that Bones was her Guardian had been a bright idea. Then it was Sideswipe's voice coming over the speakers.

"You say he's your _Guardian_, kid? You're sure?"

"Positive. He made a right big _stink_ about it at first but from the looks of things he's the real deal. And I'm _not_ a _kid_."

"You're on a_ roll_ with her, amico." That was Mirage. So they could all talk through each other. Kinda cool and creepy, but it certainly proved useful here. Sideswipe then went on a tirade about how most humans were difficult anyway and that it wasn't his _fault_ that she looked like a boy or that she _was_ a kid and just didn't like being _called_ one and that he was too useful to be wasted on a basic pickup mission anyway and to get insulted by a tiny human, etc, etc, that was muted out so Mirage could continue. "Forgive him, signora, he is used to dealing with soldiers. He's not actually all that bad. Arrogant, sometimes, but not bad. We are just having a hard time believing your... 'Bones' could still _have_ Guardian protocols."

"All Decepticons deleted them, along with most of their moral coding. It's why they can do such horrible things with no hesitation or guilt." Explained Ironhide. Sideswipe remained muted, though Danny could see the silver car in front picking up speed.

"I guess he didn't." Danny shrugged and leaned back in her seat, stifling a yawn. "He told me about Decepticons and Autobots and a bit of what's been going on the last couple of years from his point of view. Maybe you could give me your side of the story?"

That got all three of the Autobots to talk to her after Sideswipe had mended his lightly bruised pride, though Ironhide alone was the one who filled her in on the AllSpark story. Apparently Sideswipe and Mirage had arrived in other waves of Autobots after the whole fiasco in Mission City. It helped pass the time, and Danny was grateful for the perspective it gave her. Bones hadn't quite told her everything the Decepticons had been up to lately, but whether that was from his own ignorance or that he withheld knowledge on purpose, she couldn't say. They also told of other Guardian-Charge relationships between their kind and humans to let her know that it wasn't a rare occurrence, per se.

The sun was just creeping up over the horizon when they were done explaining things. Danny watched it impassively as she mulled over all the new information. Other human civilians had been in contact with the Autobots, a Sam Witwicky and Mikaela Banes, and mech named Bumblebee had taken Sam as a Charge, and Ironhide along with Chromia- whoever _that_ was; Ironhide would not elaborate much on the subject- was the Guardian of Lennox's daughter. So it wasn't unheard of for a Cybertronian or two to take a human Charge. Just for a _Decepticon_ to do so.

The seat leaned back, causing her to jerk awake. She hadn't even noticed she'd begun to doze, she realized, rubbing her eyes.

"Go to sleep, Danny." That was Ironhide's baritone again. She yawned again and flopped back against the seat. "It's been a rough night for you. Lennox wants you rested by the time we get to the base so you can handle what might happen."

'What might happen?' That was more than a little ominous. What the hell did that even _mean_? She was too tired to think it over much, though, and resolved to ask him later. Without much further ado, she pulled her remaining jackets close around herself before slipping into dreamless sleep.

* * *

_Roadbuster, get Leadfoot and be ready to transport a patient._

The green wrecker looked up from his weapons schematics as the comm came in, and he glanced at his comrades. Topspin was sitting at his own desk in the corner of their shared room, fiddling with some human toy he'd found earlier. Called it an 'RC chopper' or sommat. Leadfoot was in recharge on a berth and thus had all of his comms switched off.

There was no way in the _Pit_ Roadbuster was going to disturb the large red mech without damned good reason.

_What's the problem, Ratchet? Did something go wrong with the cleanup crew? _He couldn't imagine a single Decepticon, or even two or three, getting the best of Ironhide alone… and with Sideswipe and Mirage there? No way .

_No. The three of _them_ are fine. We're going to have a pair of new visitors, though, and Optimus wants them functioning. As is, the patient may already be on his way to offlining._

_Another ship landed? The Wreckers didn't hear about this. I didn't even get anythin' on the long range scanners-_

_No new ships have landed. This one has just been in hiding for a while. Just get Leadfoot, will you? And be ready within the joor._

A couple of their fellows had been in hiding all this time? Roadbuster shook his head, wondering why the new set of Autobots hadn't immediately come to join them upon landing whenever they had. The RC chopper flew by his visor and he swatted at it, shooting a look at Topspin who only gave him a mischievous smile in return. The chopper flew over to Leadfoots faceplates, hovering nary three feet above. Oh, well, that sure was one way to bring the ornery mech out of recharge.

_Aye sir, we'll be ready t'go._

The chopper dropped out of the air, and Roadbuster turned off his audio receptors at the resultant bellowing.

* * *

"We're here."

Danny peeked out from underneath one of her extra jackets that'd been serving as a blanket. Lennox was at the window, which was rolled down, and had reached in to shake her shoulder. She yawned and stretched before opening the car door and sliding out. As soon as her bags were free, Ironhide transformed, and she backed up a little because being that close to a Cybertronian that big, friendly or not, made the small, primitive, primordial part of her brain squeak a bit. With time she'd probably get over it, but that time was not now.

What she _did_ do now was take a look around. She was in a huge room, large enough for even Ironhide to be able to stand on his own shoulders and still have space, with walkways for humans along the side. Machines of varying sorts were all over the place, although there were clear lanes where the Autobots could drive through and between them if needed. There were a couple of offshoots to the main rectangle and several closed gateways, hinting that the structure she was in was much larger than just this set of rooms. The place was also crawling with soldiers and operatives in black and people in business attire, and Danny wondered if she was in _way_ over her head.

The Mack truck with Bones was just backing into the building through a large garage door behind her. Lennox guided her out of the way, and she watched as more Autobots walked in through one of the offshoots. A green and a red one, both with visors covering their eyes. The red one was, for lack of a better word, fat, and the metal around his face made it look like he had a beard and mullet. The green one seemed to have a biker's helmet, or maybe a cap, and a goatee. Both were heading right for Bones' body, and she looked at Lennox questioningly.

"They're two of the Wreckers. One of the fighting squads the Autobots have as shock troops. They're assholes, but they do their job well enough." Explained Lennox. "They're just taking your friend to Ratchet. You, however, need to come with me. We'll get you processed and then you can meet Optimus. He wants to speak with you."

Danny's head was reeling for about the fourth or fifth time in under forty-eight hours. "Wha... _meet_ him? _Optimus Prime_?" The leader of the Autobots wanted to speak with her? She just blinked dazedly as he walked her by the Wreckers. She looked up at them as they passed, and caught the green one nodding to her in greeting. She nodded dumbly back before being led into one of the human-scaled rooms off to the side.

Lennox stood by the doorway after sitting her down in front of a desk manned by a guy with a german accent who introduced himself as Dutch. Apparently he'd been taken on by NEST after demonstrating useful skills a few months back during the Chicago incident. The man went on and on about some guy named Simmons and the Autobots and how amazing it was to be working with them until his boss got out of jail, all while typing up something on the computer. Then he cut his chatter and started getting her filed away.

Only basic stuff, really. Name, age, date of birth, known relatives, et cetera. Danny answered all she could, as honestly as she could, because she had a feeling that lying about anything would get her into more trouble than it was worth. Not like with cops where she could get away with screwing around a little. A few more questions about her address, her last set of jobs, and finally, her reason for being here. She shrugged and had him put it down as 'abducted by aliens.' That got a smile out of both of the men in the room. Finally the ordeal was over and Lennox cleared his throat.

"Ready, Danny?"

"As I'll ever be." Everyone who'd mentioned Optimus Prime so far had used nearly reverent tones, even Bones, and _he'd_ been a _Decepticon._ So she felt more than a little nervous stepping out of the human rooms to meet the man himself. Or 'robot himself.' Same thing, really.

What she saw first was a chrome and blue Peterbilt truck with a red flame paint job. Lennox led her up some catwalks until she was just about at head level of the other Autobots. There were a few others milling around now. A blue one with weird light things on the sides of his head, a bright yellow little guy with door-wings and black stripes, a slender pink Autobot… shit, was that a femme? Weren't they pretty much _extinct_ according to Bones?- who was just transforming out of a sports car of some kind, another slender blue one, which she was just going to assume was a femme too, who was standing near Ironhide, all of whom were watching the proceedings. She spotted Mirage and Sideswipe near the back by the garage door, and raised her hand a little in greeting. Good to see _some_ familiar faces, at least. Both returned the gesture, and she managed to smile a bit.

With all these eyes one her, including the many NEST operatives, Danny wished she could turn invisible. Part of her understood that most of them were probably curious about the human who'd come in with a Decepticon. Maybe they thought she was a liability or a possible threat. She hadn't really sworn an undying oath to their cause or anything, after all.

Swallowing, she looked down at the Peterbilt truck again. Knowing what he was, Danny at least wasn't startled when it began shifting in front of her eyes. Then, she saw _the_ tallest mech she'd ever seen now stand up before her, and her jaw dropped. The guy had a charisma that crossed species, that much she could already tell.

"Optimus, this is Danny Coleson, the girl who was with the Decepticon. Danny… Optimus Prime." Lennox nudged her closer before leaning back against the railing, arms folded. Danny swallowed again and nodded a bit to the leader of the Autobots

This was worse than standing in front of the principals at all those shitty schools she'd gone to, or even the judge in the court room who'd made her serve forty hours of community service for swiping an iPod. Optimus seemed to pick up on her nervousness and smiled, in a friendly manner, as though to reassure her.

"It is good to meet you, Danny. I've heard a little of what happened this morning, but I would like to know what _you_ have to say about it." Another deep baritone, but soothing where Ironhide's was dangerous.

"Uhh," Danny started intelligently, trying to think of how to explain things beyond 'red guy attacked, Bones defended, they tore each other apart.' "Bonebite, my uh, Guardian, he was letting me sleep in the bed of his truck. So... I was asleep." She was off to a fabulous start. "I didn't see where the other Decepticon, the red guy, came from. I just woke up and Bones was throwing me away from the fight. He got knocked back and the Decepticon saw me, then tried to come after me. Bones was on him like _that_ though. He protected me." That got a mild noise from disbelief from Ironhide, but she ignored it and continued. "By the time the fight was over Bones was bleeding all that glowy blue stuff everywhere and the red guy was dead. Then those three showed up," She pointed at Ironhide, Mirage, and Sideswipe in turn. "And brought us back here."

Ironhide stepped forward to address Optimus. "Prime, he's a _Decepticon_. You know as well as I do they don't protect humans, they squash'em. The girl _must_ be mistaken."

"There are some exceptions to every rule Ironhide, remember Jetfire." The black mech nodded and let his leader return his attention to Danny. "The question that needs to be answered, is why. Ironhide is right; most Decepticons will eliminate humans simply because they don't like any other species."

Danny fidgeted uncomfortably under the many stares. "He's my Guardian." She finally said, with a shrug. "He said it was his job to protect me. So he was just, I dunno, doing his job… and he said he was an _ex_-Decepticon because he didn't think like the others did, so maybe he doesn't _actively_ dislike my species like that other one seemed to."

"Guardian protocols? That's slag, Optimus." That came from the blue one by Ironhide, and the voice was unmistakably female. Yup, she was a femme. "_No_ Decepticon retains them. What if this girl is working with the enemy? What if that mech isn't that badly damaged and just used her to get in here with us?"

"Chromia, I saw him myself. He is far too badly damaged to be getting up any time soon even if he did wish us harm." Optimus seemed as calm as ever, but Chromia quit her protests immediately. "Regardless, that possibility has already occurred to me. Ratchet is going to run a full scan on his systems. The question of whether or not his protocols have or have not activated, will be answered soon enough."

Danny watched the Autobots talk amongst themselves, feeling upset that the femme, Chromia, seemed to think she was just a tool. But she didn't bother speaking out because, really, she had no real way of knowing if it was true. Bonebite had _told_ her his Guardian protocols had activated for her, but people had been known to _say_ shit all the time.

"Thank you, Danny, for your explanation. Unfortunately, we'll have to keep you under our supervision until we can confirm your story." Optimus' tone was sympathetic, much to her surprise, and she just nodded again. Her neck was getting a bit of a workout today. "Lennox, perhaps you can find a place for her to stay while Bonebite is repaired and scanned?"

"Sure thing." Lennox took hold of her arm yet again and led her off the catwalks as the Autobots dispersed. "First thing's first. No offense, but you really need a bath." Lennox grinned at her as she stuck her tongue out at him. "We've got some showers in the barracks that you can use, and we can scrounge up a uniform somewhere while we wash your clothes. You can visit Bonebite afterwards. Sound good?"

A real honest to god shower? Danny's face split into a delighted grin and she began bouncing on her heels, the gravity of the situation momentarily forgotten. And she'd get to check on Bones later, which was even better and would soothe her worries a little bit. Of course, that was assuming he was still alive, but her mind wasn't going to make any more horrible assumptions for now.

The soldier laughed in response to her childish antics. "I guess that settles that."

* * *

Moving the mech from the truck to the med bay hadn't been that much of a hassle, thankfully. Leadfoot was already in a fouler mood than usual after Topspin's disturbance and it wouldn't take much to cause him to blow his gasket again.

Ratchet's requests had been odd, though. Beyond the usual 'don't jostle the patient more than necessary,' there'd been 'don't remove the tarp, don't scan the patient, be careful if the human girl he came in with was still hanging around to not step on her,' and 'leave right after you get him in here.'

His curiosity had been piqued, certainly, but he didn't want to get wrenched by the Hatchet and so had obeyed orders. He and Leadfoot had carried the tarped mech into the med bay, past Prowl, and set him down on a berth. Hang on, if Prowl was here, was Ratchet expecting trouble?

"Sure ye don't need an extra set of hands, doc?" Asked Roadbuster from the doorway. Ratchet was lifting the tarp, keeping the patient's identity hidden, and performing some extensive scanning while Prowl looked on with deceptive boredom.

"Not from you. Now get _out_ while I deal with this." Groused the medic as he deactivated the mystery mech's pain receptors and got to work. Roadbuster raised his hands in acknowledgment and followed Leadfoot out.

Apparently they'd dallied about long enough to miss a meeting of some sort. Other Autobots were trickling away from the main room of the base. He caught sight of Elita-1 and Optimus slipping off together, deep in conversation. The fact that they'd both been out here gave him the feeling that something big was going on with that mech they'd brought in. Prowl's presence in the med bay seemed to confirm this.

"Two-bit ingrates waking me up for a slaggin' moving job." Leadfoot was grumbling as he waddled off. "M'goin' back to recharge. Don' wake me unless 'Cons are attackin'." His voice rose the moment he walked into their room and saw Topspin still playing with the toy. "An' if you so much as_ point_ that thing at me again I'll _dismantle it,_ and then _you!_"

Roadbuster laughed at his brothers in arms, and promptly got another bout of cursing and grumbling out of Leadfoot. From the sound of it, Topspin was also amused by his temper. Sometimes it was just fun to provoke him. Not like Ironhide or Prowl, who couldn't really take a joke.

"Roadbuster, got a minute?" He looked down and spotted Lennox waving at him. The mech knelt, leaning his elbow on his knee while he regarded the human. They had a mutual respect going between them; they were both relatively straight-forward when it came to attacking things and they cared about their fellow soldiers. Other than that, though, Roadbuster couldn't really remember dealing with Lennox very often outside of a combat setting. "The girl that came in with the guy in Ratchet's ward is under surveillance, Optimus' orders. Can you guys help keep an eye on her until we get her friend cleared out?"

"Aye, I could help with that. But I got better things to do than t'play a damned sparkling sitter to a human. Can't ye get anyone else ta watch her?"

"Sure, but the more eyes, the better. She's under _that_ kind of scrutiny right now, so we're putting her with other Autobots. You guys can keep up scans on her in case she's got weird tech that we couldn't pick up."

Roadbuster frowned at the implications and dug up the brief look at the human he'd gotten. That little thing was a possible security threat? Well, if Optimus wanted eyes on her, then he'd damn well do his job. Wreckers _always_ did their jobs.

"Can do."

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Yeah, Bonebite was out cold for most of this one. But I couldn't think of a single way for him to meet the Autobots without inciting their wrath and getting himself killed. And anyway, he was running on fumes so the fight pretty much drained him as is.

And we've finally met the Autobots! Fun bunch. I'm only really going to be focusing on a few of them in this fic, but the whole cast is milling around. Wheeljack and Ironhide are still alive because if the Decepticons get their baddies back then the Autobots need theirs. Plus, y'know, I adore Ironhide. And for the purposes of this fic, the Arcee triplets thing never existed. Elita-1 and Chromia are entirely separate entities, and they are larger than mere motorcycles. Flareup is around too but she's out with Jolt and Hound on a mission. Also, they're actually effective now, unlike in the one bayformers movie they showed up in.

One last thing: I hope the canon cast was more or less in character. I'm doing my own interpretation of the Wreckers here, though, because they didn't have much screen time in the movies, and the Roadbuster here is based on that incarnation as opposed to G1.

As usual, if you spot any typos or errors, etc etc, feel free to point them out to me, or just blame Khalthar, and let me know what you think. Cheers!


	4. Recovery

**Author's Notes**: A few formatting things to change around in this chapter. Simple stuff, really. I'm going to start labeling which point of view I'm taking from now on to make things less confusing.

"Regular speech."

**Flashback.**

_Cybertronian, "spoken" or comm._

Also, finals and such are coming up for me. Chapters _will _slow down, but I'll try to lengthen them a bit to compensate. Thanks guys!

* * *

**Guardian**

**4- Recovery**

Danny

There really wasn't anything quite like being clean, Danny decided, stepping out of the barrack's showers feeling at least five pounds lighter. She was quite surprised that she was a few shades paler than she thought she'd been, and the smell of soap and the lack of BO was a definite boost to her mood. The soldier, Lennox, had been true to his word and had left her a sort of clean jumpsuit uniform in the deserted locker room for her to use, although there were no shoes to be had. The jumpsuit was simple, dark gray with utilitarian pockets and a patch on the opened collar that proudly signified 'NEST Personnel.' Another picker upper to her mood had been finding a stash of dentist-grade toothbrushes and tubes of toothpaste in a cabinet near the mirrors, all individually wrapped in plastic and sanitized, and she'd cheerfully gotten to cleaning her teeth. Hygiene was a luxury she would _never_ take for granted again.

Lennox laughed when he saw her come out clean and nearly a different woman altogether. "There might actually be a girl under all that grime. Surprise, surprise." That earned a light, playful thwack on the arm from Danny, who was grinning despite the teasing. The man insisted that she get some food in her before doing anything else; he'd apparently discovered the assorted snack items in her backpack and decided that she needed real fuel.

Even though it was cafeteria grade food with a dollop of hot mashed potatoes and green beans with a side of soggy green salad, it was still like the food of the Gods.

Afterwards, Lennox was again a man of his word when he took her to the med bay to check on Bones. There were two more Autobots here, a black and white one that looked at her pointedly and a day-glo green one who was working on her still injured Guardian. Lennox didn't interrupt the green one's work but named him as Ratchet. So, apparently he _was_ the medic for the Cybertronians. The other one was introduced as Prowl, a quiet fellow who, again, only stared at her before resuming his watch on Bones.

Bones himself was laying on a huge slab of a table, far above her ability to see him very clearly. The medic was just about up to his elbow joints in her Guardian's insides, though, from this angle. She could see some of the lines that leaked the glowing blue stuff that she'd tried to tie earlier. They were now professionally and cleanly crimped and knotted. The plates of armor from Bones' side that'd been ripped off by the enemy Decepticon were still gone, though Ratchet had obviously seen this problem and had placed a temporary metal covering over the wires there.

She had a few questions about her Guardian's condition but doubted Prowl or Lennox would know, considering they weren't working on the guy themselves. Unlike Lennox, Danny had no qualms with talking directly to the medic.

"'Scuse me, Ratchet?" Danny skipped out of reach of Lennox as he made a strangulated noise and tried to grab at her to stop her. "How's Bones doing, _exactly?_" She couldn't just _look_ at him and know that he was alright without him actually getting up and _telling_ her so himself. She just wasn't familiar enough with the species.

Ratchet looked up from his patient blankly, then realized where her voice had come from before turning _down_ to her. The guy had mutton chops, or he would if his kind grew hair. Did they emulate humans when they'd arrived here on Earth, or did they have those before? Danny was curious, but didn't think the medic would let her get away with pestering him too long if the look of long-suffering patience he was giving her was anything to go by.

"Bonebite, as is his proper designation, is in the process of recovery. I've given him some energon and I've fixed his tanks, but I still have a _lot of work to do_." Ratchet gave her a keen look, and she held her ground under his scrutiny. In fact, he seemed quite interested in her. Not personally perhaps, but the fact that she was there for Bones had definitely caught his attention. "He was very close to shutting down for good, little one."

"I know. I'm glad you're helping him, though." And she was very sincere on that matter. Whether or not the guy was using her, whether or not he really was an _Ex_-Decepticon, she still felt some amount of obligation to him, some amount of loyalty. The guy had saved her life, even if it was his on the line too, and Danny didn't like leaving debts like that laying around. "Is it too much to ask if you could, I dunno, let me know if he changes? Either way?"

Ratchet nodded slightly, both with approval and agreement, before he got right back to work. Danny took this as the cue to leave and waved at Prowl as she walked past him with Lennox.

"I thought he was going to wrench you. He _hates_ being interrupted."

"I caught that. But I just... I needed to know, and now I do. Thanks for showing me."

"No problem. Come on, let's get you introduced to the rest of the Autobots."

Back in the first large room, some of the Autobots from before were relaxing at the far end, sitting on some of the machines or leaning against the wall and talking amongst themselves. There was the yellow one with black stripes, the blue one with the odd light-up 'hair' on the sides of his head, and Mirage and Sideswipe. With them was one of the Wreckers from before, the green one who'd missed the meeting, and a blue one with odd 'dreadlocks' and massive chin right next to him, although the red Wrecker from before was nowhere to be seen.

The green wrecker was staring at her and Lennox as they made their way over to the group. It was more than a little disconcerting, especially since she couldn't exactly meet his eyes through that visor of his. It was only when she looked again at the blue dreadlocked one that she realized _he_ had a visor too. Maybe it was a thing specific to Wreckers.

Lennox introduced her to each other them, and she shuffled a little with uncertainty. It wasn't really like she could shake their hands or anything, at least not easily. The yellow one was Bumblebee, and she remembered Ironhide telling her about his being a Guardian to Sam. The blue crazy scientist type was Wheeljack, who apparently actually _was_ a crazy scientist type. Mirage and Sideswipe she already knew, and gave them a friendly wave which they returned. Chins-McGee was Topspin; quiet, but he had a bit of a rascally look in the way he smiled. And finally the green Wrecker was Roadbuster, who hadn't stopped staring at her since she'd gotten over here with Lennox.

A beeping noise caught her attention, and her eyes were dragged right over to the source; Lennox's phone. He checked it quickly before giving her an apologetic smile. "Duty calls. Play nice, guys, I'll see you later. And Bee, say hi to Sam and Mikeala for me." The yellow 'bot dug up a recording of some song or other to affirm that he'd do as asked while Lennox moved away. The soldier was soon joined by several people in suits and they all went for the human-scaled rooms, leaving Danny very much alone in the company of giant alien robots.

She looked back up at them all while the silence stretched. It wasn't so bad when it was just her and Bones, or even when it was just her and Ironhide with the others over the comm. But big groups like this, in an unfamiliar place, wearing unfamiliar clothes, with unfamiliar robots, and not even shod? Danny could do many things, but handling a situation like this was not one of them. Luckily, it was Sideswipe who saved her from opening her mouth and most likely making a horrible gaffe of some sort or another.

"You look much better when you're clean." Ah, yes, a comment on her dirt level. She made a face at the silver Autobot and he grinned.

"And you look much better without your head up your ass." Her tone was good-natured, and she was smiling right back despite the somewhat harsh words. Sideswipe and Mirage were 'bots she could get used to. The rest, however... "And, uh, nice to meet you other guys." The various bots nodded or smiled or otherwise acknowledged her. Bumblebee scrambled some snippets of noise together to express the pleasure of meeting another friendly human. Curious, it was time for a nice tactful question to find out why he didn't just speak to her.

"What's up with him?" Danny had no tact.

"Voice processor is damaged. Can't get a new one, but his old one keeps going on the fritz." The one called Wheeljack answered. "Not a lot of parts to make anything on our standards here on Earth, you see. Your native metals are too soft."

"Only by a bit." Interjected Topspin. "If you get the alloys just right and if you can get enough of it, some of it's actually pretty useful for weapons tech and ship parts."

"Ship? You guys have a ship?" And then she just about smacked herself. How _else_ had they gotten to the planet? Roadbuster have her a sardonic look.

"Nooo, lass, we floated out of th'sky on clouds a'pixie dust. Of _course_ we've got a ship."

"Well _excus_e me, Captain Cucumber. I figured you guys just _were_ the ships, seeing as you can _transform_ and shit."

"Oh, we've got quite a mouth, don't we?" The big green mech leaned down. Danny folded her arms and tapped her foot, trying and failing to hold back the smile that tried to force its way onto her face. The big green mech was obviously enjoying the mock argument from the way he was smirking. Mirage, Topspin, and Sideswipe were snickering between themselves while Bumblebee tilted his head and watched them curiously. He must be younger than the others, though she really couldn't gauge their ages well at all. Wheeljack hardly seemed to be paying attention anymore, tinkering with some sort of device the size of his whole palm, which occasionally sparked or spluttered.

They were a fun bunch.

* * *

Bonebite

**"What do you mean, _they're gone!_" Bonebite slammed his fist nearly through the heavy metal wall of the ship, fighting against the spasms and emptiness in his spark that the words only confirmed were real. Barricade remained motionless while the black mech struggled to remain standing. Decepticons did not fall to their knees, not for anything. Not even this.**

**"I mean, they're gone. Dead." Barricade was his friend and sole confidant within the Decepticon ranks, although he'd never been good at phrasing things less than bluntly. That didn't necessarily mean that all of his emotional and sympathetic coding had been burned out, however. **

**Bonebite finally couldn't handle the pain and slumped against the wall, sliding to the floor with his faceplates in one hand and the other clutching his chest in a futile attempt to soothe himself. Barricade knelt beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder.**

**"I am sorry, my friend. The city was hit hard and fast. Their deaths were probably quicker than most." Little comfort that was to him, though. **

**He'd known the moment it'd happened, of course. The sudden rush of sheer agony through his spark, followed quickly by loss and emptiness could not have been caused by anything else. Barricade shook his shoulder a little, and repeated himself.**

"**I'm sorry."**

* * *

Temperature: [System offline]. Local time: [System offline]. The sky, [System offline]. Lighting, [System offline].

"_...-ing back online. Be ready, just in case._"

"_I always am._"

Bones was pleased to know that at least his audio receptors were still working. He didn't turn on his optics yet, deciding to quickly run a systems diagnostics. Almost all of his programs were on halt, and none of his weapons or fighting protocols responded. There were medic locks all over his CPU to prevent him from moving suddenly or activating his cannons. Good news was, though, that he was still online. He moved up his frame slowly, making sure everything was still intact. Feet, legs, check. Torso, mostly there, though the tingling of regenerating circuits suffused his entire chest. Fingers, hands, arms, check as well. With that out of the way, he finally got his optics up and running. The whole process had taken less than a full breem.

He was in a med bay somewhere, that much was obvious. He counted one face above him, and knew from the voices earlier that another must be off somewhere to his left. His processors halted abruptly upon realizing that the face above him had very, very blue optics.

_'Oh slag.'_

If it weren't for the medic locks on his systems he would've vaulted back off the table and confronted the Autobot. Instead, all he could do was slowly lift his head and look around while alarms blared inside his few online systems. Danger, Autobot, _danger_. Another one, and this time he could recognize the other mech from Decepticon reports as more of his memory drives resumed working. Prowl, that was the designation. Another look at the painfully bright green one jogged his systems. Ratchet. The medic of Optimus Prime himself.

He'd had better mornings.

"_Easy, stay down._" Ratchet put his hand on Bonebite's shoulder and held him still. "_Don't you dare undo my work or I'll offline you myself._" Venomous words, but without real force. Bonebite just stared at the medic before bringing a hand up to gently probe the worst of the chest wounds. RedNova's blade, he remembered, had gone right through him. Glad to remember that he'd killed the little fragger right after receiving the injury. And it was patched up, too. Why did the Autobots want him alive? He frowned slightly as something niggled at the back of his awareness, something very important. Bonebite reset his optics and decided to think about it later, letting his arm slide back to the slab he was resting on.

"_Where am I?_" His vocal processor was back to the roughness it'd had when he'd first used it on... something a few days ago, the something he couldn't quite recall right now. The something important. Time to see if they'd give him answers.

"_The current Autobot base._" Not much more than that. "_Scans are reading mostly normal. New parts integrating well. Time for the evaluation: Designation?_"

"_Bonebite._"

"_Faction?_"

"_...None._"

"_Do you remember what happened to you?_"

Bonebite nodded slowly. "_RedNova surprised me in... in a human scrapyard. Swords, lines broken, I didn't have enough energon to stay active._" Ratchet made a note on a datapad.

"_Yes, and you two triggered an energon sensor, which is how we found you at all. You were going to offline soon even without the fight._"

"_I'm aware._"

"_You were very close to it when we brought you in, as well. Your tanks were ruptured, you'd torn at __least four major energon lines and many minor ones besides. Several of your systems had been torn __loose from their casings, and your arm was nearly severed entirely._" Bonebite remained silent while Ratchet ran through the list of exactly what had been wrong with him, and how bad each wrong had been. Then the medic added on, "_You're still recovering. We've put a lot of resources into making sure you survived. We will allow you to live so long as you do nothing, directly or indirectly, to harm us or the humans. Understood?_"

"_Yes._"

"_Good. Now, as I'm sure you've already noticed, I've put blocks on your weapons systems. I will not remove those until you earn our trust._" Bonebite had to hold in a sarcastic remark. He didn't necessarily _want_ the trust of the Autobots, and not just because he used to be a Decepticon. He wanted nothing to do with _either_ faction anymore, didn't want anything at all to do with the old war that no longer had any meaning or purpose. Maybe if he promised to go somewhere far away and not cross paths with them again he could get control of his systems back. He'd just have to find somewhere suitable for-

"Danny." He jerked up as fast as he was able, nearly tearing a few of the fragile, healing lines in his chest. Ratchet very deliberately pushed him back down with a stern look. Bonebite met the stare with one of his own. Danny, his Charge, his little human who'd tried to help him and who was quickly taking a soft space in his spark even against his wishes and better judgment. Not a replacement for what he'd lost, but a possibility, a bit of hope. A weakness he didn't want to admit. But the Autobots had her now. She'd stayed there with him until he'd shut off, so they had to have her.

Was she okay? Had they damaged her in any way? Was she being looked after or, and his spark twanged at the thought, had they killed her? No, Autobots didn't kill humans. She was around, somewhere; she had to be. He had to find her.

Before he could even begin getting up again, Ratchet caught on to his train of thought and kept his hand firmly on the mech's chest. Prowl, who had moved forward sharply at his sudden exclamation, leaned back against the wall.

"_I discovered, while treating you, that your Guardian protocols have activated._" Said Ratchet. Bonebite didn't respond. "_A little human female walked in here before you awoke and demanded that I let her know your status. She was concerned about you._"

Truly? Bonebite still didn't respond, so Ratchet continued.

"_I have also discovered that you have a carry hold for sparklings. Not something many mechs these orns have, let alone a Decepticon. Imagine that; finding the one 'ex'-Decepticon who's retained his Guardian protocols and has a sparkling carry hold._"

That was too close to what he'd been reliving in his recharge state for comfort. The next bit of news surprised even him, however.

"_Your sparkling care protocols are dangerously close to reactivating, as well. I would keep an eye on those and be cautious, if I were you._" No other advice, nor judgment. No questions. The medic was, apparently, a true professional. Bonebite forced himself to unclench his jaw and nod to Ratchet.

"_Can I see her?_" He finally asked after couple of Terran seconds of silence. It was absolutely infuriating to be stuck in this situation, to be at the mercy of an Autobot, to be separated from his Charge, to be only barely able to move, to be cut off from his weapons and thus protection, to be forced to _ask for permission_. It went against everything in his programming. But he'd make the best of it. He always did.

Ratchet nodded and looked at Prowl. They must have communicated via comm because Prowl left the room without a word spoken between them. He felt himself relax a little. Prowl was gone and he had some breathing space. And, better still, he was going to be able to check on his Charge.

* * *

Roadbuster

The little human female wasn't quite what he'd expected. She'd been nervous at first, as most humans were, of being surrounded by Autobots several hundred times her size and thousands of times her weight. But the moment he'd started bantering with her she'd visibly relaxed and fallen right into it. Topspin and Sideswipe joined in after a few minutes and soon they were all laughing and chatting away about Earth things that the Autobots found funny or confusing, and jokes, both of Cybertronian and Terran variety, as well as sharing stories from Cybertron and the times of peace during the war. Danny listened to those, enraptured, whenever they came up. Mirage offered in a comment or two here and there, Bumblebee added anecdotes of his own when he could cobble together correct clips, and even Wheeljack looked up from his tinkering to inject his analysis of the current topic.

The human didn't know much of true warfare or what it was like to be one of the last of her species, but she did know quite a bit about topics that surprised him. A lot of it was survival tactics, and that was something Roadbuster respected. Where to sleep, where to eat, what a good place to hide would look like, that when stealing to never target mom and pop stores and only the larger chains that could handle it, agility and acrobatics for evading attackers. Gang wars and, consequently, their tags so she knew who ran the territories. Which gangs were lenient with vagrants like herself and which ones would target her for being a female or simply because she was 'trespassing.' How to spot potential threats and how to fight, dirty or otherwise. Not like they did, with cannons and weapons but with improvised tools, fists, feet, or whatever was on hand.

They shared stories of skirmishes and minor battles and she told them of gang fights she'd seen or in which she'd been an unwilling participant. They told her of their times of peace, when they could stop and rest and rebuild a little, spend time with their remaining families and friends, and she mentioned what it was like to sit on top of a moving train car and look up at the night sky with wind rushing past. They slipped back into banter, and she gave as good as she got, albeit in more colorful terms. Wheeljack decided that he really needed to get some tinkering down now that his social quota for the day was met and left after saying polite but harried farewells to them all.

Danny intrigued him. From what he'd gathered she was adaptable, but it was still surprising that she'd only discovered his kind a day ago and yet she was already sitting among them on one of the generators, laughing and sharing. He'd had relatively limited experience with humans since he'd rarely been off the base, but from what little he did know most humans tended to avoid him even after a month or more of learning of him.

Epps had mentioned it was because he and the other Wreckers were such dicks to everyone. Roadbuster chose to ignore that statement.

"Prowl, something the matter? You look like you got a rod jammed up your aft." Topspin's voice pulled his attention to the approaching mech. Lennox was right behind him, but the human soldier's body language made it clear that they were coming separately.

"Nothing at all." The tone was tart. The black and white Autobot looked down to Danny, who'd stopped chatting with Mirage and Sideswipe to look up at him with a raised eyebrow. "You, come with me." His tone left no room for argument as he turned and walked off, though Danny's expression made it clear that she dearly wanted to protest. Nevertheless, she heaved a long, dramatic sigh and slid off of the generator, waving at them before padding away after Prowl to the med bay.

Roadbuster stood to follow them- orders were to keep watch on her, after all- but Lennox cleared his throat to get their attention.

"So you've all met our latest guest, and you all know she's under watch right now." Roadbuster huffed impatiently. Humans had the odd tendency to repeat what everyone already knew, or to state the obvious. 'Sure is sunny out today,' or 'The Red Sox are on a winning streak, hurrah.' Just _get on with it_. "One of you guys is going to have to keep an eye on her for the night. She can't stay here and we can't let her loose. Any volunteers?"

Instantly, over their comms, the present Autobots initiated a quick 'draw straws' program. Danny was interesting for a human, sure, but none of them wanted to get stuck watching her for the rest of the night and not be allowed to relax or stay here in the base. Nothing personal. Roadbuster swore vehemently upon realizing he'd drawn the short one, and Topspin openly laughed at him, Sideswipe joining in. Mirage patted the green Wrecker's shoulder sympathetically, though the effect was ruined by his grin. Bumblebee hadn't participated; he already had a Charge he needed to look after, and he'd be leaving soon anyway.

"I guess I'm put up for th'job." Roadbuster grumbled, shooting glares at the retreating backs of his friends. Former friends, more like. Wankers. Now he was going to have to sparkling sit a human in an almost literal way. He'd have to think of shelter options for the night, for remembering to carry some food from the stores in the base for her, to keep an eye on her all night long.

"Aw, don't feel so bad." Lennox folded his arms and leaned against the generator, looking up at him. Roadbuster was about to mock the soldier's voice when Lennox went on, "If it helps, you can bring her back to my place later. We've got a spare room, and Ironhide and Chromia can sit on her if she causes trouble."

"Then why dinnya bloody well_ say_ so to start?"

"What, and let you guys think I'm always bluffing?" Roadbuster gave the human a deadpan look, which the soldier seemed to totally ignore. "Honestly though, bringing her to my own damn house isn't my favorite idea. I'd really rather have one of you guys watch her. But," Lennox raised his hands and shrugged. "There aren't a lot of places to take her. I get that. All I ask is that you take her there later, so I have time to get everyone ready, just in case."

"If ye insist. I don' actually think the lass is much of a threat, meself." She'd been okay company and none of them had detected anything off about her, tech or otherwise.

"We can't take that risk." The tone, and expression, darkened. "Remember the last time we assumed someone was an ally?"

Roadbuster grimaced. "'Hide nearly got his spark blown out. Yeah, I recall very well." It'd been a short and ugly fight between Sentinel Prime and Ironhide, apparently. The black mech had managed to hold off the Prime long enough for Bee and the others to escape before being forced to retreat himself. And it said a lot when _Ironhide_ left a battle unfinished. "I'll take her to your house in th'evening, or thereabouts, if it's so damned important to be late about it."

"Sounds good to me." Lennox gave his foot a friendly pat before turning and heading towards the exit. Roadbuster could just make out Ironhide's alt form just inside the garage door. He couldn't see Chromia from here, but knew the femme would be beside her sparkmate. They'd both be needed to watch the lass, then? What exactly was she, or had she done, to earn such scrutiny and security? Did it have something to do with that unknown mech she'd come in with?

Roadbuster shook his head, deciding to deal with it later when he had access to more information, and commed Leadfoot to let him know where he'd be and what he'd be doing. He only got a grumbling assent in reply. It was just one more setback in their plans to go and rebuild the Xantium, unfortunately, and Leadfoot was just irritated that things kept coming up in general. With nothing left to do, the mech went to lean against the wall by the med bay to wait for Danny to come back out again.

* * *

Danny

The med bay hadn't changed in the few hours since she'd last been in there, but it still felt a lot more tense. At least, it did once Prowl stepped in behind her. Her eyes were drawn right up to her Guardian on the giant slab, and her face split into a huge grin when she saw those familiar red eyes glowing again, focused on her. He was still laying down, and it was obvious he was going to need to do some more recovering, but the fact that he was awake had her positively giddy.

The slab itself was almost ten feet above her without any ladders or ramps, so getting up was going to be an issue. And staying on the ground just felt, well, strange. She was saved the necessity of having to find an alternate route up when she was suddenly plucked off the ground, squawking, by a massive metal hand and placed by Bones' arm. She glared back at Prowl who returned the look impassively. A low whirring growl had emanated from Bones the moment Prowl had touched her, though it quieted down when she stepped over to his face. He didn't seem capable of moving very much, yet, but he was able to tilt his head to better look at her.

"Danny."

"Hey, Bones."

She put a hand carefully on one of his horns, which still weakly moved. It was scary, in a way, to see something she'd viewed as unstoppable at first reduced to this state. Especially after seeing him fight, though she had a feeling it would've been much more spectacular of he hadn't been pretty much on empty the whole time.

"I'm glad you're okay." Fuck, yes, it was a relief. While the other Autobots were cool and all, none of them seemed particularly vested in her well-being. Not like Bones seemed to be. Besides, having him around for company, even if only for that one night, had been kind of... nice. He was the most familiar and closer to being a friend than anyone else here.

"As am I." He shifted, very slowly, and reached across his chest to put one large finger gently on her shoulder, and she placed her free hand on it. "You are well, I see."

"Yeah. Amazing what a good shower and a hot meal can do." That got a very slight smile out of him, which thrilled her. The guy almost never smiled.

"I will remember that." Bones' eyes flicked over her shoulder, giving Prowl a guarded look, before he lightly nudged Danny closer. She acquiesced and shifted a little, blinking at him questioningly. He turned his gaze back to her. "I wanted to thank you, for what you did after the fight." He was much quieter now, and she realized he didn't want Prowl or Ratchet to hear him easily. Huh, wonder how well the mechs could hear to begin with? Hell, she had to lean down closer just to listen properly. Not even mentioning the fact that the act of apologizing alone seemed to be very hard for him. "For tying my energon lines and for staying with me. And Ratchet told me you... yelled at the Autobots?" His voice was a little incredulous.

Danny shrugged and grinned. "'Sure did. Maybe not my smartest move ever but, hey, they stopped coming at you." Desperation had driven those actions, but overall she was glad with how things turned out.

"Mm. I would still prefer that you don't throw yourself in danger like that again." A pause. "Please." Wow, he was being polite about it now? Either he was a little desperate himself or he was learning some manners. Or exercising them, at least. Regardless, she nodded. Sure wasn't on her list of things to do, getting into mortal trouble. Bones relaxed very slightly. "I must remain here for a few more cycles." She raised an eyebrow and he clarified. "Days."

Days? What was she going to go do for a few more days? Danny didn't much like the idea of leaving him here with Cybertronians who had initially been hostile to him, although she knew he was in the best hands possible, was part of it. She also just didn't want to leave the only familiar thing she had out here in the DC area. It wasn't going to be fun running out and bumming it in a strange city, and that was assuming that the NEST people were going to let her go. She hadn't been oblivious to all the attention she'd been getting, all the looks, all the eyes on her. But if he couldn't leave, then he couldn't leave, and there wasn't much she could do about it.

"Alright. Well, uh, hope you feel better soon." She hesitated then gave his shoulder a brief hug. She was starting to like the guy, to be honest, loyalty or not. Bones gave her a look of surprise, one that was shared by Ratchet, and then she was picked up off the slab by Prowl and placed back on the ground. Bones still didn't like that Prowl kept grabbing her like that, and it was obvious by the way he tried sitting up that he did want to leave with her. But Ratchet's firm hand on his chest kept the black mech down while Danny walked out the door, sparing only one look back at him.

Outside she bumped into a huge green foot and stumbled backwards. She glared up at Roadbuster who turned to look down at her with a thin smile, unfolding his arms and standing up straight.

"I've been given th'task a deliverin' ye safely to a house. Lennox's, to be precise. I take it yer ready t'go?" Ah, so they _weren't_ letting her go. Not really. She was still under robot and human supervision, and would be all night long. Danny sighed and fidgeted, looking over to the human sized rooms. Someone in there must know where her bags were.

"Mind if I get my stuff at least?"

"Hurry up, then."

Without wasting a moment, she scampered off to the room where she'd first met Dutch and found the man still typing away at his computer. He looked up when she entered and shrugged when she asked if he knew where her stuff was.

"Ich don't know. Aber... Have you tried Frau Mearing's office?"

"Who the hell is Mearing?"

Dutch just pointed her to the room above his before getting back to work. Mildly confused, she went up the stairs of the catwalks to the second level of rooms, going down a hallway until she got to a room with the name 'Mearing' on it. She cracked the door, saw nobody inside, and entered. Thankfully, her bags were piled in one of the seats facing the desk, and she was pleased to see them even though it was obvious someone had been through them already. She slid her arms through the loops of the backpack and slung her seabag over her shoulder before heading out and back to Roadbuster, who was no doubt impatient by now.

Danny had only just reached the stairs of the catwalk, catching sight of Roadbuster making his way to her from his place near the med bay doors, when a hand clamped down on her shoulder and spun her around. She slapped the hand away instinctively, tensing up for a fight, when she realized she was faced with and older woman wearing a rather smart suit and spectacles who happened to be giving her a very poisonous look._ 'Cripes, lady, I didn't kill your dog or anything.'_

"Who are you, exactly? Who gave you clearance?"

"I-"

The woman interrupted her, grabbing Danny's wrist to keep her from fleeing. "Ah, right, the _vagrant_ brought in with that damaged machine." Out of the corner of her eye, Danny could see Roadbuster shift a little, agitated. Guess they didn't like being called 'machines,' then. "Let me tell you something, young lady, I don't much like the idea of letting some homeless kid like you run around my facility unchecked. I've had two other teenagers brought in here because of that Bumblebee and I'll not have my security compromised even more by someone without any ties, or loyalty, or education." That _stung_. This bitch was assuming a lot from the fact that she slept on the streets instead of in a house or dorm. Danny's eyes narrowed, though Roadbuster cut in at this point.

"Mearing, she's with me. You dinna hafta rant at the poor lass. We're leaving as is-"

Again, Mearing interrupted, much to the Wrecker's consternation. "I do, actually. Without me running the show there'd be total anarchy around here. Nobody else cares about protocols or security measures. Does anybody actually _know_ this girl? Where are her credentials? Why bring her into a _top secret base_ and then let her run around willy nilly?" The woman was clearly not going to be stopped, though Roadbuster tried again anyway.

"We've been keepin' an eye on her, Optimus' orders."

"Optimus' orders?" That just set off Mearing even more, and she tightened her grip on Danny's wrist. Danny herself was rapidly losing patience with this woman, who just kept insulting her and her buddies. Sort-of-buddies. Whatever. "Let's get one thing straight: _my_ orders are the final ones around here." '_Ah, a control freak,'_ thought Danny, rolling her eyes. Mearing caught the gesture and turned her wrath again on the younger woman. "Anything to say?"

"No, _ma'am_." Sarcastic as could be.

"Don't call me that. I am _not_ a ma'am."

"Well good, because you're sure as hell not getting any respect from _me_." The woman's face flushed with anger and Danny had to hold in a grin. Baiting the bull was always fun.

"Listen here, you _worthless street rat_. I am in charge not only of the facility but of many sects of the government. I know things about everyone, I'm connected to everyone and everything. I give orders and they are followed. Nothing anywhere happens without _my_ say so. You, however, you will never amount to anything." Any sense of amusement in Danny vanished now, and she met the woman's hard stare dead on. Roadbuster looked between them, holding his tongue for once. "It would have been easier for everyone here if you'd never gotten involved with these machines at all. You've caused a huge headache for everyone here just by showing up!" The woman leaned closer, trying to invade Danny's personal space even more to make the girl back down. Danny didn't give an inch. "You should've just stayed on the streets, where you _belong_, instead of causing trouble like this."

Danny's jaw clenched and unclenched as she fought for control of her temper. Then she slowly smiled to Mearing, whose expression turned wary. Her smile, after all, was wicked and thin, and there was nothing timid or friendly about her at the moment. Mearing clearly began to realize she'd gone a little too far with her own temper. Danny pulled back her free arm, balled a fist, and punched Mearing. Right in the face.

The move caused the older woman to let go of Danny's wrist and stumble back to the ground, dazed. A huge hand grasped Danny for a second- were they _always_ going to be doing this? She wasn't a _doll_ or anything- and before she knew it she was perched on Roadbuster's left shoulder, between his head and his cannon, while security personnel suddenly came forward to help Mearing up.

"Aaaaan' that's our cue t'go." Roadbuster waved cheerfully to Mearing and her subordinates before quickly making for the exit with Danny still on his shoulder. The girl cackled and flipped Mearing off as Roadbuster stepped out of the huge garage door and away from the now completely irate woman, chuckling himself. She knew she was probably in shitloads of trouble, but it was so very worth it.

* * *

Roadbuster

"Ye've got mettle, lass, I'll give ya that." While many people had had their limits tested by Mearing, he couldn't recall anyone who'd actually gone out and slugged the woman before. Danny shrugged, grinning, and slipped down into his palm when he put his hand up for her. He set her on the driveway and transformed, being sure to tuck in his weapons this time. While he and the other Wreckers usually preferred to have their guns out and ready, even in their alt forms, it wouldn't do much for keeping things on the down low while he took her to Lennox's home. Of course, the fact that his alt form wasn't an ordinary car already made blending in a hassle.

Danny looked him over and whistled. "NASCAR fan, huh? Never much paid attention to the drivers, but I liked watching speedy cars."

"Oh, ye like fast cars, then?"

"Hell yeah. One of the few things I paid attention to growing up. Not NASCAR, but, y'know, fancy, racy, _fast_ cars in general. Like Mirage?" Another appreciative whistle. "Few things can compete with Ferraris, man."

"Aye, that daft mech is a tad vain." He took on a teasing tone with her and mentioned to the red mech over the comm that his efforts of finding a suitably posh alt form hadn't gone unnoticed. He received an amused 'oh, really' in return.

"Oh, can it." The human clambered into his driver's seat through the window, hugging her belongings in her lap. After taking a moment to ensure she was properly settled in he took off like a shot, speeding onto the main roads and towards the freeway. He noticed that Danny began fidgeting around, staring out the open windows with glee. Ah-haaa.

"So ye said ye liked speed?"

"_Hell_ yes!"

With that confirmed, Roadbuster accelerated, totally ignoring any and all posted speed limits; as a result, it wasn't long till they hit the freeway. It wasn't really like the cops could catch him, after all, not if he actively maneuvered to avoid them if or when they popped up. The human in his seat began laughing as wind whipped through his cabin, and she grabbed onto the netting that was strung across the open window as he swerved between slower cars. His engine purred, not as smoothly or softly as his comrades alt forms could; he was no luxury car. But Danny seemed pleased with the sound nonetheless.

"Lennox is about thirty odd minutes away." He told her as they passed out of DC. Of course, that was assuming he'd maintain his current speed. "If ye don' mind me askin', lass, who was it that came in with ya?" Everyone had been mum on the subject with him and the other Wreckers, which was very odd indeed. If it was another Autobot, surely they'd have no reason to conceal identity? Unless they thought the Wreckers were a security threat, and that just made Roadbuster's circuits curl in anger. It wasn't like they'd go screaming out to the world where Decepticons could hear that another of their number had returned to them. And, Pit, he and the Wreckers _destroyed_ Decepticons. It was what they _did_. So why was everyone so... secretive? Maybe it wouldn't bother him so much if he just knew who it was they'd brought in.

Danny, however, his sole source of information on the subject as of this moment, went quiet. "A friend." She muttered, and he almost couldn't hear her over the wind. "His name's Bones, and he saved my life and got pretty messed up in the process."

Bones? He searched his databases and came up nil. It was possible that this Bones fellow had been in another part of the galaxy during the war; Roadbuster didn't pretend to think he knew all of the Autobots they'd had when their ranks had been at the fullest. Noticing that Danny had withdrawn a little, he fumbled around with what to do.

"Ah, lass, don't worry about Bones." Reassuring tones of voice, or as best he could make it. It just wasn't something he did very often. "If Ratchet is lookin' after 'im, he'll be good as new in a bit. Alright?" Danny smiled a little and patted his dashboard.

"Yeah, I guess so. He looked loads better when I went to check in on him. He doesn't seem to like Prowl, but from the way everyone treats him, I guess no one does." Interesting. Changing the topic, flowing from one to the other. He resolved on finding out more about this Bones fellow first chance he got.

"Aye." Few mechs could handle Prowl in extended doses. Logical and law-driven to a fault. And dreadfully dull conversation most of the time, too. Good guy at spark, though, and good to have around in a fight. "Mirage and Sideswipe are better company. Not to mention me mates, eh? The other Wreckers?"

That got them into a brief discussion of the Wreckers and what their jobs were. Generally, clean up crew, but since they'd gotten to Earth they'd been tending to the Xantium before it was blown up. Now, he confided in her, they were trying to rebuild it. They'd managed to salvage most of the wreckage and they planned to use it to eventually go and retrieve the Ark from the moon.

The little human female was absolutely fascinated by everything to do with space travel and their ships, and he indulged her by showing her little holograms of other ships the Autobots had once had in their fleets.

"I wish I could go to space someday." Said Danny wistfully, staring at the little holo-image of one of their massive dreadnaughts.

"Lotsa black, mostly. Stars, some planets. Ye get used to it."

"Really? I can't imagine _ever_ getting used to stuff like that. Passing by star systems and exploring the universe would be a great way to live. See things nobody's ever seen before, visit places no one's been to. That sort of thing." Roadbuster considered her words and admitted that, when phrased like that, it was a very attractive idea, indeed. "You said you were trying to rebuild your ship, right? Mind if I come see it sometime?"

"It's, ah, it's still in th'framework stage." Seeing that the stage of construction didn't seem to matter to her, he added, "But I suppose, if ye'd like it that much, I could take ye to it." Him and his big mouth. That managed to get a smile out of the human, though, and that was enough to please him too.

Finally, in the evening and right on schedule with Roadbuster's estimation, they pulled up in front of a house that was somewhat isolated from everything else. Fields stretched out around the house, dotted with a few trees and what looked like a wooded area off to the side. A barn was in the backyard, and Danny could spot Chromia just inside of it. Ironhide was out in front of the house itself, still in his alt form, and Roadbuster parked beside him. Danny suddenly sunk down in her seat, staring at the door of the home. Nervous, apparently. He remembered her telling him that she hadn't really been in an actual house since ninth grade, and certainly not that of an unfamiliar family. Funny how that could make her shy when Mearing could not, he mused.

"The Lennox's are a nice bunch, or so Ironhide says. An' if not, I'll be right here. Ye'll be fine, lass."

Nodding slowly, Danny climbed out through the window and half dragged her bags to the doorway of the house. She looked back, and Ironhide flicked his lights to reassure her. Visibly steeling herself, she knocked and waited for someone to answer.


	5. Connect

**Author's Note:** Another big thanks to all of you who've added this story to your alerts or reviewed! As always it's a big boost to see those alerts pop in(and it makes studying bearable -cough- ).

* * *

**Guardian**

**5-Connect**

Danny

No one answered. At least, not immediately. Danny looked back at the cars and shrugged. Ironhide flashed his lights again, twice, and she turned and raised her hand to knock one more time. The door opened before she could touch it though, and she blinked a little when she didn't see anyone. What, were the houses transformers too? Silly thought, but it went through her mind anyway. A giggle caught her attention though and she looked down.

A little girl with blonde hair that hung in loose ringlets and who was absolutely _covered_ in flour grinned up at her. The kid couldn't be more than five or six, and wore a green and yellow dress that was also, funnily enough, coated in flour. "Hi, lady! Are you the one daddy said was gonna have a sleepover?"

Then another voice, a woman's, came through the doorway. "Annabelle Lennox! What have I_ told_ you about answering the door before I check who it is?" Ah, this must be William's kid, though he'd always be called 'Lennox' in Danny's head. William just... Didn't suit him, for some reason. A woman came to the door now as Annabelle ducked back and out of the way. Also blonde-haired and up to her elbows in flour, the woman was taller than Danny and had a stern expression on her face. "What's your name?" No nonsense, apparently, at least not when the kid was involved.

"Danny Coleson, ma'am." This woman, unlike Mearing, definitely rated a 'Ma'am.' The little girl giggled and babbled about how that was a boy's name until her mother shushed her. "This is… uh… this is the Lennox household, right?" Of course it was, if the girl with the name lived here, but it felt better to ask. This woman would probably prefer some amount of politeness on her part anyway.

"Yes, it is. Alright, come on in; Will said to expect you. We were baking cookies." The woman stepped out of the way and Danny went inside, and the elder held out her hand after shutting the door behind her guest. "Sarah Lennox. Will's my husband. He said you came in with a Cybertronian?"

"Yeah, earlier today. He was injured so Ratchet's helping him out. I really appreciate being able to stay here by the way, ma'am."

"Call me Sarah, please." Sarah insisted as she led her to the kitchen, Annabelle bounding along at their heels. "Will told me you were homeless before you got involved with the Autobots?" The small child crawled up onto a stool in front of a counter while they spoke.

"Uh... yes." There was an air of disapproval from Sarah, and for some reason this made Danny duck her head a little and feel... well, shame. Being a vagrant pickpocket-slash-chronically-jobless-college-dropout wasn't exactly something to brag about. And they both knew it.

The little girl, Annabelle, was now busy picking out balls of dough from a huge round glob of the stuff and rolling them carefully into balls, tongue clenched between her teeth in a very determined expression. The lumps she made were neither particularly spherical nor very uniform in size, but she seemed happy with them anyway and Sarah gave her daughter a proud smile as the tiny girl placed them onto a greased cookie sheet. Danny suddenly felt like she was intruding, out of place, and she hung back in the doorway to the kitchen. This was a family sort of activity and Danny was very much not part of the family.

Little Annabelle seemed to notice her discomfort and dropped down from the stool to rush over to her. "C'mon Danny! _Everyone_ likes cookies." A very matter of fact statement, and it made Danny smile a bit. The child grabbed Danny's hand her in tiny ones and tugged the woman further into the kitchen. "But you hafta wash your hands first. Mommy always says you hafta wash your hands before you eat or make things." Said the girl solemnly, dropping Danny's hand when they were in front of the sink before hopping back onto the stool to resume her work. Danny looked at Sarah who nodded encouragingly before letting out a resigned sigh and dropping her bags in the corner of the kitchen. After a quick scrub in the sink she was standing on the other side of the counter from Annabelle, making round balls of cookie dough herself.

"It's the chocolate chip kind!" Exclaimed Annabelle as she set down another wad of dough. "D'ya like chocolate chip? We made sugar cookies too but we ate them all already. But if you're staying for a sleepover we can make more!"

"That's _way_ too much sugar for you, hon. Just this batch for a while." Sarah patted her daughter's head before going to check on the oven. That didn't really stop the girl from chattering away to Danny while they worked through the dough and filled up two more cookie sheets. Danny only had to reply with a few words here or there and the girl went off on another tangent. She was grateful to the girl, though. Without the constant talking, Danny was sure she'd be feeling much more awkward and out of place than she currently did. As it was, she wasn't quite sure what to make of the Lennox family. Annabelle obviously didn't seem to mind her being there, which was a nice start, but Sarah was clearly wary. Will himself had seemed okay with her earlier, though, so that was another plus she was willing to take. She already knew the Autobots were watching her too, so there was Ironhide and his grumpy ladyfriend Chromia outside to deal with. At least Roadbuster was, relatively speaking, openly accepting of her.

How odd to say that she already missed Bones, the one familiar thing she'd had over the last couple of days.

"Your foot!" Annabelle was pointing dramatically at Danny's bare feet, startling her out of her reverie. They'd gotten up and, with Sarah's help, had loaded the cookie sheets into the oven, and set a timer. This must've been when the girl had looked down to spot the problem. Annabelle's exclamation got Sarah and Danny looking down too, and the former winced sympathetically. "D'ya need a band-aid, Danny? We got lotsa band-aids. I got Batman ones and Spider-Man ones and the ones with flowers..."

As the girl rambled on Sarah made Danny put her injured foot up on the stool to get a better look at it. When she'd showered earlier she'd done her best to wash out the cut she'd gotten when fleeing from Bones, but it'd still been a little red and puffy around the edge of the wound. Now it was an angry crimson and very swollen, and quite obviously infected. It'd been throbbing before, certainly, but Danny had ignored it. She'd gotten cuts before and they had always healed up just fine, so she hadn't thought much of it. Sarah, however, was not taking it lightly and made Danny sit down while she went to get out her first-aid kit.

She fidgeted uncomfortably and glanced out the kitchen window. The sight of two pairs of headlights literally right on the other side of the glass made her eyes widen to saucer plate standards. Ironhide and Chromia were, apparently, watching her _very_ carefully. She could just faintly hear the growl of an engine, which was definitely from Roadbuster, and she shot them a wide, nervous smile. Sarah came back with a bright orange case in her hand and saved the younger woman from having to sit in a staring contest with a pair of sentient vehicles.

"How'd this happen? Did you stab yourself with a rusty screwdriver?" Sarah was obviously less than impressed as she pulled out swabs, antibiotics, and disinfectant from the case and began treating Danny's foot. Danny herself just ducked her head into her shoulders, cowed.

"I- actually, it was- a rock?" It came out like a question, dammit all, and Sarah raised an eyebrow at her. "I was running and a rock got in my shoe. And it... cut me." It sounded lame, even to her, but it was the truth.

"I see. That explains how it got infected so darn fast. Couldn't treat it properly at first?"

"No, ma'a- uh, Sarah."

"Well, it'll need a day or two to heal properly. And we should probably get you some shoes. What happened to the ones you had before?"

"The people at the NEST base took all my stuff. I think they burned my clothes, shoes included."

"That bad, mm?"

"It wasn't like I had daily access to showers or anything." She replied sounding a little petulant, but Sarah just shook her head slightly and smiled, apparently amused. The older woman finished treating the wound, putting away her medical supplies and standing just as Annabelle stepped forward with a box of band-aids in hand. With great care, the tiny girl plastered on a row of them over Danny's cut. Instead of choosing one type, apparently, the girl had opted to just throw in all her superhero band-aids… plus the flower one. '_My foot is going to look like a comic book._'

"All better. Mommy's good at fixin' scrapes, isn't she?" The child grinned at Danny, and the young woman couldn't help but smile back.

"Sure is. Thank you, by the by." She looked up at Sarah for that, who only nodded as she went to return the first-aid kit to its proper place. Danny turned her attention back to Annabelle. "And thank _you_, kiddo. The band-aids are sure gonna help."

"Yeah! Superman is invinci-... invisi-... nothing hurts him. He'll protect your foot until you get better."

"He absolutely will. Looks like Batman and Spider-Man are gonna help, too. And what is that, the blue thing with the... lightning bolt rainbow?"

"Rainbow Dash! She's a pegasus."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah really! She flies super fast and can do all kinds of tricks and she's really loyal to her friends, except that one birdy-liony lady, and..." Danny resigned herself to listening to anecdotes about the girl's favorite things for the rest of the night, which more or less turned out to be a big hodge-podge of superheroes, ninja turtles, pokemon, and my little pony.

* * *

Several hours later, well into the evening and not long before Annabelle was going to be sent to bed, Lennox sat Danny down to clear things up with her. Sarah sat on the couch in the living room beside her husband while Danny took the recliner and watched them. Lennox twiddled his thumbs for a moment, obviously looking for what to say, and Danny risked a look out the window. She'd been hoping for stars, but instead it was full of green Autobot. That was still a bit of a jump, seeing a car parked so close to a window like that. The living room and the kitchen were on opposite sides of the building. Were they following her around the house?

"We should probably lay down a few ground rules, Danny." The young woman turned her attention back to Lennox. "Nothing major, just need to make sure the air here's all cleared out. Make sure you know why you're here to begin with." Danny simply nodded in response. Lennox continued. "The gist of it is, as long as you don't do anything to hurt us or the Autobots," 'Unlikely.' Thought Danny. It'd be damned difficult to even scratch one of them, at least with anything she had on hand; not that she was likely to go at them with a rail gun or anything to begin with, though. "You're going to be fine. Although, apparently you've got a really mean right hook. I seem to have heard something about a conflict with Mearing this afternoon?" Danny grinned at the reminder. Still totally worth it.

"There may have been a conflict of sorts between us, yes." A conflict between her fist and the lady's face, definitely.

"News spreads fast. Mearing's out for blood, by the way. Might want to avoid the NEST base for a few days while she cools off." Lennox cracked a smile, clearly entertained by the whole affair. "You've made a few friends with that stunt, mostly among the Autobots and my people. Mearing's been hard to get used to."

"No effin' kidding." She was careful to cut back on the swearing, what with Annabelle running around underneath their feet. Didn't want to get kicked out for teaching naughty words to an impressionable six year old; especially when that little six year old was laying on the carpet not four feet from her, drawing away with crayons.

Annabelle seemed about finished with her current picture, actually, and proudly held it up so her parents and Danny could see it. More or less stick figures, with 'mommy,' 'daddy,' 'mia,' and 'hide,' although the last two were blocky cars. All were carefully outlined and colored in, and at the top were big blue letters titling the piece 'my famly' in all caps, slightly misspelled.

"Nice job, sweetheart." Praised Lennox, ruffling his grinning daughter's hair. "Going to get ready for bed now?"

"I'm not sleepy!" She protested, right before yawning. "...Not_ that_ sleepy." Any further complaining was belayed by Sarah, who gathered the girl up in her arms and walked out of the room.

"Doesn't matter. Time for bed. Let's go get you changed and your teeth brushed..."

Lennox smiled after his family before turning to Danny again, who'd watched the whole thing in silence. "Cute kid." Said Danny, smiling slightly and looking at the dropped family portrait.

"Yeah. She's great. She wants to build robots when she grows up. Or be an astronaut. She hasn't decided yet." Danny had to look back at him to see if he was serious. Lennox only smiled and shrugged. "What can I say? The guys've had an influence on her." He picked up the drawing and placed it on the coffee table, gathering up the scattered crayons into their box. Upon sitting back down, he rested his elbows on his knees and watched her. "And what about you, Danny? What do you want to do with your life?"

What _did _she want to do with her life? Danny looked down, slowly clenching and unclenching her fingers as she thought it over. It'd been a long time since she'd thought ahead of the next week; hell, even ahead of the next day. "I... I don't know." She met Lennox's eyes again and shrugged helplessly. "I guess I wanted to finish college and get a job… maybe travel a bit and see the world. When I was little I wanted to be an adventurer. Like Indiana Jones, or be a space explorer like Ripley."

"Heh, well, Ripley's was more of a forced case, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess so. And she _died_." A mutual chuckle before silence fell again. Danny sighed and glanced out the window at the Autobots. "I don't know what it is I want to do. What I _can_ do. But I guess now I've got the chance to figure it out." But she knew she wanted to do something that'd help them, the Autobots. Maybe she could get a degree to do something with technology.

"I understand that. But what is it that you want for yourself?" He seemed to have picked up on her train of thought, and she made a face. For herself? Well, wasn't that the same thing?

No, she supposed not. Her eyes fell to the picture. A family would be nice, cliché as it was. People who cared about her and who she cared about in return. For herself, that's what she wanted. But to say it out loud would make it seem cheesy, and corny, and terrible, and stupid, and generally just very silly. Saying it out loud would _lessen_ it. She was saved answering by yawning, and Lennox tsked her.

"Slept most of the day away and you're already tired? I thought you young people were supposed to be real night owls."

"Ha, ha, old man. You can't be more than a few years ahead of me."

"No, but I'm sure I've got _worlds_ of experience on you." They both laughed as he stood up. "I'll show you to the guest bedroom. Unless you want to sleep outside in a car again." He grinned at the face she made. "What? We found the comforters when we went to get you. Two plus two is four. Want me to wake you up for breakfast?"

"Oh _yes_, absolutely."

The guest bedroom was simple, clean, and, all told, somewhat boring. But it had an honest to god bed, with warm sheets and pillows, it was indoors, and a soft rug that she could wiggle her toes into underneath it. Pure luxurious bliss. And a private bathroom! Oh, the things she'd never ever take for granted again. After Lennox left and she'd dropped her bags, she moved to the window by the bed and opened it, sticking her head out. She could just make out the silhouette of the cars in the moonlight, and Roadbuster revved his engine a little at her; his lights were stickers, so he was unable to flash them.

"Goodnight." She half called, half whispered, before shutting the window until only a crack was left open to let fresh air in. She crawled under the sheets, relishing their softness and the comfort of the mattress and pillows, then finally curled up and went to sleep.

* * *

Roadbuster

_'I'm goin' ta stay out here for th'night. Keepin' an eye on Danny.'_

_'Aww, gone soft, have we?'_

_'Mute it. I'm just doin' me job.' He hesitated before tacking on, as inconspicuously as possible, 'an' I promised her I'd take'r to the Xantium tomorra. Warn Leadfoot for me, would ye? Don' want 'im to squash the poor girl.'_

Topspin made his amusement clear through their link, and Roadbuster growled and shut it down from his side. Roadbuster held to his promises; he was a mech of his word, after all. And besides, it'd be a good way to keep watch on Danny and still placate Leadfoot by getting work done. As it was, they still had a lot of rebuilding left to do.

* * *

Optimus Prime

Prowl and Ratchet had left the med bay at his orders, leaving him alone with the purportedly ex-Decepticon. Optimus Prime waited until the door slid shut behind him before approaching Bonebite himself. The mech was still recovering, but was awake and aware enough to follow him with those disconcertingly red eyes. For so many vorns, red optics had meant an enemy; how odd to view them without real hostility now.

"You are aware that the only reason you're online right now is because of your Guardian protocols?"

"...Yes."

Optimus stopped near Bonebite's head, looking down at him without expression. "You are aware that any act of violence against us or humans will force us to offline you?"

"Yes. Your medic already went over this."

"Then allow an old mech to reiterate the rules which will now govern your life." No force behind the words, not yet, but Bonebite fell silent and still. Satisfied, Optimus continued. "Do you still see yourself as a Decepticon, Bonebite?" He knew that the mech, and his Charge, both claimed that he'd left the faction. But very few mechs lied to Optimus' face when he asked them directly, and he wanted to see this for himself.

It was a few moments before Bonebite responded. "Not since the massacres." He shifted very slightly and put a hand over his spark. Ah, yes, Ratchet had mentioned that he had a carry hold.

"Did you have a sparkmate?"

"No. But that doesn't mean it was less of a blow." Bonebite's hand slid back to the berth. "And I'm tired of war." A subtle hint that he wasn't looking to join up with the Autobot cause.

Optimus bowed his head in acknowledgment. The attacks on the neutral cities had been a bad hit to the Autobots… and, apparently, to some of the Decepticons as well. Both sides had lost many of their femmes and sparklings; in the Decepticons case, all of them. Primus, if Elita-1 had been in one of the cities when the attacks happened, Optimus didn't know where he'd be now. It certainly made sense that the attack had also shaken the faith of many Decepticons. Bonebite cleared his vocals to get his attention again.

"Where is Danny?"

"With a trusted human family. She will be well until you can rejoin her." Optimus cocked his head a little and observed Bonebite for a reaction. Nothing. The mech was like the dead for all the emotion he showed to the Autobot leader. "I will allow Ratchet to speak to her for you, though your comms will remain off."

"Thank you."

Optimus nodded and proceeded to the door, deciding he'd gotten what he needed for the moment. He paused long enough to say, "She defended you when she spoke to me. It was a great surprise to learn that a Decepticon, ex or not, could inspire such stalwart loyalty from a human. See that you don't let her down."

Outside the med bay, Optimus caught hold of Prowl while Ratchet returned to tending his patient. The mech looked at him questioningly, and Optimus waited until the door slid shut again before speaking, in Cybertronian. No sense in having Bonebite, or the various humans, be privy to every conversation.

"_You know what to do if he turns on us. But also try to keep him safe from our own. Keep his identity as a former Decepticon from the Wreckers, Flareup, anyone with a violent temperament; they'll tear him apart before they can get an explanation. As is, we're lucky Ironhide and Chromia didn't offline him already. We'll introduce him, slowly, when the time is right. Ensure no information leaks out. Continue standing guard_."

Prowl saluted, accepting the orders without question, and went back to the med bay to do as asked. Ten days or so until Bonebite would get out on his own two legs. Ten days until he really shook up the Autobot faction. The Decepticons might come for him, and they had to be ready. Optimus rubbed his optics with a hand before moving further into the base to discuss possible plans with Elita and Ironhide over the comms. Primus, he had a lot of work to do.

* * *

Roadbuster

"Primus, lass, stop bouncin' around like that. Makes me think ye've grabbed a live wire."

"Oh come _ooon_, it's not every day I get to see an _alien spaceship!_"

"Like I said, it's still bein' rebuilt. It's not even _close_ to bein' done yet."

"There is nothing you can say to dampen my spirits. Nothing at all."

Roadbuster shook his head at the human's antics as he approached the rebuilding site, careful not to knock her off his shoulder. They were out in the wide open field where the Xantium had been stationed before its destruction. There were a few buildings and garages out here to house the human workers and the Wreckers when they stayed out here, as well as the various bits and pieces of the Xantium that weren't going to be used until later in the construction process. Topspin and Leadfoot were already out here and working on the ship with a few humans and their machines.

The ship itself was, as he'd said earlier, still in the framework stage. The basic skeleton of the ship was there, and the huge components, such as the engine, the slightly melted computer, and what remained of the thrusters, were all held in their proper places with chains and temporary welds. The pieces that belonged to each of these components were strewn around the frame to be put back in with care. Some parts simply had to be remade, they'd been melted or damaged so badly.

Upon reaching the others he got a bout of cursing from Leadfoot about being late as a greeting. Topspin clasped hands with him, at least, and smiled at Danny. She waved back and slipped off Roadbuster's shoulder to his hand when he held it up before being set on the ground.

"Try ta stay out of th'way; Leadfoot jus' might lose it if ye messed somethin' up."

"Oh I _will_ lose it if we're set back again." Leadfoot came to stand in front of Danny, arms folded. "So don't mess around with our ship, got it? This ain't a damned daycare center. And I can't believe you brought her here to begin with." He prodded Roadbuster in the chest for that last bit. "This whole thing's been one fiasco after anotha. The first time she breaks somethin', she's outta here."

Danny stuck out her tongue and made a rather rude noise, which just made Roadbuster and Topspin laugh while Leadfoot told them all to sod off and get to work.

The girl managed to not make a nuisance of herself at all as the day went on, much to Roadbuster's relief. She often just hung around, out of the way, and asked them questions about how the machinery worked, obviously fascinated with the whole process. But she had the good sense to avoid asking too many of Leadfoot. That mech's patience was naturally low, and the more so today. And, surprisingly, she was a fast learner. He had a feeling that after a few days she'd be able to keep up with some of the conversations between the Wreckers, so long as they weren't in Cybertronian.

Danny even came in handy later in the day, and actually succeeded in earning some respect from Leadfoot. One of the computer's inner components needed to be replaced and rewired, and the task was too small for them or the larger humans to deal with if the casing remained on. Problem was, the only way to remove the casing would be to take the computer out of the frame entirely, and that would add nearly a week onto the rebuild time. Topspin had already saved a few days by making a replacement component ahead of time, but today was the unlucky day that Leadfoot found out about the issue himself.

"We've already lost about two _months_'a work time on this buggered ship! I thought you said you _checked_ the fraggin' computer before you put it in?" Leadfoot jabbed a finger into Topspin's chest.

"I _did_. The problem was, it wasn't apparent _at the time!_ It might've torn loose when you _shoved_ it into place ten cycles ago! Maybe if you weren't in such a _rush_ to get the damned job done-"

"I'm the _only_ one tryin' to get the job done! All you lazy sods jus' keep puttin' it off and idling about when you're supposed to be workin'!"

Roadbuster had been following the argument, shaking his head, when he felt a rap against his foot and looked down. Danny waved up at him, the replacement component under an arm. Huh, she must've taken it from the human worker who'd been holding on to it earlier. A quick glance to the human garage showed the workers scrounging around. Without permission, then.

"Ye plannin' on makin' off with that?" He folded his arms. Danny shook her head.

"Nah. Hard to find a place in the market for tech like this, I bet. At least without getting severely ripped off. I'm thinking maybe I could just get this done so big red lowers his volume a little? He's kinda freaking out the other guys. And none of_ them_ are volunteering to do this, especially with him throwing a tantrum like that."

"He's got some anger management issues, true enough."

Roadbuster looked at the other Wreckers and motioned for her to follow him. They stepped around the arguing mechs, who clearly didn't realize what the two were up to, and moved into the framework itself. He had to pick her up to get her to the main chassis of the computer, running a scan on it before carefully pulling back one of the sides that wasn't welded to the frame. The computer itself was large and difficult to move, and took up a large portion of the ship when it was fully installed. This bit housed the main navigation systems and flight controls, and was near the 'front' of the frame. About forty feet from top to bottom, thirty five feet thick, and nearly forty five feet from side to side. Roughly speaking; it was more of a crescent shape to conform with the hull of the ship as opposed to a big blocky square, and had rounded curves mixed in with sharp edges that made it very clearly something not built by human hands.

"Now, be careful, first off. I dinna want to have to explain to Optimus that I got ye killed inside our ship while foolin' with tech. And it's messy t'clean up later." He grinned when she stuck her tongue out at him. "What yer lookin' for is close to the back- there, see?" The broken piece was in the back of the huge computer was just visible when he carefully moved aside a few of the looser components. The computer was mostly gutted, which helped with weight issues and let them put it into place without having to commission several of the other mechs for help. But there was still enough in the way, especially near the back where the damaged system was, that neither a mech nor a large human, as most of the workers were, could get back there easily. "It's a bit off th'floor, so try not ta fall an' break something. When ye get there, remove the red cable first. I'll walk ye through the rest."

"What does the red cable do?" Asked the human as he leaned as far as he could into the computer's chassis and let her climb off his hand. Like the primates her kind descended from, she simply scaled the few systems in her way and walked along one of the larger cables towards the back.

"It supplies th'electricity. I don't want ye handling anything with a live wire attached ta it."

"Relax, shamrock, I know what to do with techy shit. More or less. Don't touch the sparking bits, right?"

Shamrock? "Ha ha, girl. Very clever." Still, it was with some worry that he watched her climb and maneuver her way over to the broken bit of machinery, the working one tucked under her arm. If she fell or hurt herself she'd be beyond his help, at least until they dismantled the computer. And that could take _days_.

Roughly five terran minutes later, though, and she'd reached the component without one single incident. However, the placement and positioning of the component and the systems surrounding it forced her to the far side and out of his sight. That was mildly distressing, to put it lightly.

"Ye alright, lass?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Her voice called back, and his audio receptors picked up the sound of rustling and a cable coming out of a socket. "The red cable's out. What's next?"

Alright, yer goin' t'want ta pull out the nail in the center of the back there. That'll release it from its casing and let ye get it mostly out."

"This would've been easier with a hammer." She grumbled. He heard her grunt with effort, struggle a little with it, before the sudden sound of metal sliding against metal reverberated through the chassis of the computer. "It's out!" A pause, then, "Sort of."

"Uh-huh. Still five or six wires attached ta it?"

"Yep, six. One's broken, though."

"Aye, that'd be part of the problem. Jus' remove it entirely, but in the sequence I tell ye. Got a spare wire with you?"

"Yeah, the new one has it already attached."

"Right then, remove the wires from th'old one in this order..." The component was still partially powered and needed to have everything removed in the correct order, else she risked getting shocked with energon-based power.

With the component finally completely removed, he guided her through installing the functional one, essentially just a reverse order of what she'd done already. The only real difference beyond that was reconnecting the damaged wire on both ends, as opposed to just removing it.

"There's like thirty different ports here, 'Buster. You're going to have to be more specific than 'th'one on the right.'" She parroted his voice, down to his accent, which both amused and annoyed him.

"There should be only five ports down near th'bottom of that second system's chassis. Ye want the one that's in the upper right of that cluster."

"It's next to a glowing yellow light, right?"

"No, no, two clusters below that one. I said th'_bottom_, lass."

"This thing has eight different sections to it! How am I supposed to know_ which_ bottom you mean?"

Still, between them they managed to get the thing completely connected sans the main energon power line. Roadbuster, had he been paying attention, would've realized they'd garnered a bit of a crowd behind him, including the other Wreckers and a few of the human techs, while he leaned into the chassis of the computer to direct Danny. Just as he told her to connect the thing-very carefully, he'd stressed- Leadfoot made his presence known. Loudly.

"What exactly are you ingrates doing, ay?"

A shriek of surprise from inside the computer, followed by a sizzling sound and a bang, turned the Wreckers' attention to the inside of the computer housing. A bit of smoke floated out through the opening in the chassis and quickly dissipated into the early afternoon air. A short silence ensued.

"Slag." Topspin was the first to break it. He and Leadfoot immediately began apologizing while the human techs shouted about liability and whatnot. Roadbuster didn't pay much attention to any of them.

"Danny!" Roadbuster very nearly shoved his way through the internal parts of the computer, Leadfoot and his timetable be damned, when slightly hysterical giggles wafted out. He could just catch sight of her through the wiring and around a part of the navigational system. "_Primus_, lass, are ye alright?"

"Fantastibulous!" Her voice was sing-song as she mashed words together, and she fell into giggles again. He ran a scan and discovered that the component had been successfully installed, and that the human was on her way out again with the broken one in tow. "Whee-heehee, I feel kinda wobbly. Izzat normal?" The tiny human finally appeared, stepping along on top of one of the flight control casings and hugging the useless bit of tech to her chest, and Roadbuster let air circulate through his systems again. He leaned inside the computer and delicately scooped her up into his palm, shaking his head slightly at the whole situation.

"Ratchet describes th'experience as 'tingly.'" He muttered, glaring through his visor at the other Wreckers. Topspin shrugged and held up his hands in a gesture for peace. Leadfoot just folded his arms.

"Oh, yeah, it's that too. _Believe_ me."

The green wrecker glanced down at Danny and snorted. Her very short hair was on end, and there were a few tiny wisps of smoke coming from her clothing. There was a big smile on her face though, and she kept trying to avoid falling into silly laughter. Apparently getting electrocuted could be a funny experience, at least for her. He took the broken component from her and wordlessly handed it over to Leadfoot. The red mech blinked in surprise and slowly reached for it, turning his attention from Roadbuster to Danny, then from her to the component and back again.

It was quite obvious what the 'ingrates' had been up to, and it'd saved them a couple of weeks of dismantling the computer, putting it back together, then returning it to its proper place. Topspin started laughing, and some of the human techs joined in while others just shook their heads and returned to work. Leadfoot finally closed his hand over the broken component and grumbled a little.

"Done good work, girl." It was about as close to a statement of gratitude as the grouchy mech was going to get. He frowned at Roadbuster, jaw obviously clenched, before finally relaxing and walking away. "She can come back, I 'spose."

Danny stood up in Roadbuster's hand and saluted, somewhat deliriously, to Leadfoot's back, and the green mech had to laugh at that.

* * *

By the end of the week, Roadbuster finally had to admit he was growing rather fond of the human. After her help with replacing the broken component in the computer, she'd gained a place, however small, at the rebuilding site. More often than not she did nothing but chatter away or ask questions, or occupy Mirage and Sideswipe when they came to check on the progress, but now she was sometimes asked to do little things that the larger humans and mechs simply couldn't. Danny, for her part, was thrilled just for being included, and her enthusiasm rubbed off on all involved.

Every night, on the way back to the Lennox home, she'd make him open up a comm link to Ratchet so she could ask about Bones. He wasn't able to communicate with the mystery mech directly; apparently the mech's comm system was shut down for the moment and wouldn't be online until he was out of the med bay at the very least. Roadbuster chaffed at the lack of information from Danny and every other mech in the know. Nobody would tell him who, exactly, this mech was. Each night Ratchet would only tell them that Bones was better than the previous cycle and that he'd be out in the middle of next week, so _quit bugging him already_. That didn't actually dissuade the girl from comming the medic again the following night, every night, all week long.

In fact, the mystery mech was due to arrive in three more days as of this evening, and Danny was very cheerful about that. A tad confusing, because to Roadbuster's limited knowledge she'd only known the mech for about a day and a half longer than she'd known any of the rest of them.

"He _saved my life_, Roadbuster." Was all she said after he asked about it. "Personally, in my book, that's _kind of a big deal_. And without him I'd never have met any of the rest of you, so he's pretty high up on my buddy list right now."

"Aye, and how long's yer buddy list, anyway?"

"Like... maybe ten people long. There's you guys, the Wreckers, I mean. There's Bones, Sideswipe and Mirage, 'Hide and Chromia, sort of, the Lennox's... Oh my god."

"What?" He scanned the surrounding area and checked over his sensors as they drove down the road towards Lennox's house, weapon's systems readying. Not a single threat that he could detect. Huh. "What's wrong?"

"Nathan! I forgot about him! Shit, I- oh, fuck. The last time I spoke to him I was- Oh man he's gotta be freaking out." She groaned and flopped back against the seat, hands over her face.

"Well, can't ye call him?"

"Uh, _yeah_, I _could_, if I had a goddamn _phone_."

"Bloody Pit." He sighed. "What's his number?"

Danny stared at him, rather, the dashboard, suspiciously before relaying it, then jumped clear out of her seat when the sound of a ringing phone came out of his speakers. Now may not be the best time to tell her that most of Earth's technology had been reverse engineered Cybertronian stuff. Being a phone was pretty damned easy, especially since the encryption on the majority of the phone lines of this planet was minimal at best.

A young man on the other end picked up after two more rings. "Hello?"

"Uh, hey, Nathan." Danny grimaced and kicked the dashboard. Clearly, she'd rather have waited to prepare something to tell him, and Roadbuster would've grinned if he wasn't in his alt form.

"Danny? Holy shit, where the hell have you _been?_" Anger now, but more of a protective anger than real fury. "I went looking all over for you, do you realize that? I- shit, I thought you'd been kidnapped!"

Danny coughed and rubbed the back of her neck; nervous habit, apparently. "No, no, not kidnapped. It was a, uh, misunderstanding."

"Bullshit. What happened? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm alright. Turns out they just wanted directions to the, um, nearest gas station. And after that call I didn't have money to call you back again."

"Jesus Christ, Danny, don't do that again. _Please_. You scared Angie and me half to death. And a whole week without even hearing from you? You could've dropped by our place, you know that. Where are you staying now? Not out on the streets again right? Are you really okay out there?"

"Nah. I'm with some friends, they're taking care of me. Everything's fine, I just wanted to check in with you. Let you guys know I'm okay."

"Alright. If you say so. Please drop by if you ever drop a call like that again; I'm _pretty_ sure I lost like five years of my life after the way you ended that last one."

"Hardy-har. Say hi to Angie for me. Toodles."

"Sure thing. Bye, Dan." The man's voice was somewhat reluctant, but he hung up anyway. Roadbuster closed off the comm and let the silence grow. Danny hugged her knees and looked out his window, letting out a long breath. Ten minutes from the Lennox household, he broached the subject.

"A friend of yers?"

"We grew up together."

"He seemed concerned."

"Well, yeah. I didn't exactly leave off on a good note last time."

"How so?"

"Well, I told him I was being stalked by a driverless car. So he probably thought I was on drugs, about to be kidnapped, or that there really was a demon car after me. I can't decide which."

"Yer kiddin'. Who was it?"

"Bones. And I was honest about that, at least; it really _was_ a misunderstanding. But we got it all cleared up and now it's all working out." She drummed her fingers against the wheel before patting his dash. "Sorry for kicking you."

That got a short bark of laughter from him. "No harm done, lass." Five minutes to Lennox's house. "So... Ye consider me a friend, eh?"

"Well, sure. You've been pretty nice to me so far, and you let me help out that first day and stayed at the Lennox's every night even though you don't have to." He started protesting but she cut him off. "Don't lie to me, Buster. Topspin filled me in; you could've left that first night and been done with me, but you didn't, even though I'm sure Leadfoot shouted your ear off. Or ear equivalent or whatever. So thank you. For… y'know… not leaving."

"Not a problem. Jus'... doin' my job." Huh, she really considered him a friend? He hadn't really made any real friends outside of the Wreckers and a select few of the Autobots. Even Epps was more of a coworker than a true friend.

He pulled into the Lennox's driveway beside Chromia and let Danny out. Ironhide was away at the moment, so it was safe to assume he and Lennox were off on cleanup duty again. Roadbuster had to admit he was jealous; a good fight was just what he needed to shake off the rust. But, still, staying here was fine too. The other Autobots wouldn't really be able to put the Xantium back together without the Wreckers, so they were still useful.

Chromia interrupted his train of thought when she opened up a comm link with him. Very odd, considering she was literally right next to him. The only real reason for that would be to make sure Danny or Sarah couldn't hear them. '_Mind running a self diagnostics program?'_

_'...Why?' _He did as asked, of course, out of curiosity more than anything else, but as far as he could tell all his systems had been running smoothly. And it wasn't as though he'd been attacked or anything on the way back, so there was no reason for real change in them to have occurred.

_'Notice anything funny throughout the week? Any shifts in your own behavior?'_

_'I can't say that I have, no.'_

_'Really? Because you've been spending an inordinate amount of time with that human, Danny. And it's been showing.'_

_'So? Optimus' orders were to keep an eye on th'lass. Tha's just what I've been doin'.' _That came out a little more defensive than he'd have liked, but it was true.

_'Too much, apparently. Self diagnostics reveal anything interesting?'_

Roadbuster checked through the first set of results from the tests. Everything seemed normal so far. All processes running well, energon consumption was efficient, weapons systems were online as usual, no damage to any systems or his frame... Oh.

_'Me guardian protocols have activated.' _He finally responded, slowly. '_And Danny is my Charge.'_

_'Yes. And it's been painfully obvious to everyone but you, it seems.' _Her tone was icy.

_'Oh, slag off, Chromia. So what if I'm her Guardian? Ye don't have to be so damned pissy about it.' _Human phrases worked well sometimes and rolled out of vocal processors nicely; just a few of the reasons the Wreckers had adopted them into their vocabulary.

_'I'm only worried about _you_, you ignorant fragger. You don't even understand what kind of trouble she's up to her neck in.'_

_'__As her Guardian I guess it's me job to pull her out of it now in'nit?__ And if anyone would jus' _tell_ me what the issue with her is, I might've done somethin' about this earlier.' _And now he was, most definitely, defensive. '_I like the lass, alright? I admit it. What I don't understand is why ye think it's such a damned problem. Whatever kind of trouble she's in, I'll help her deal with it_ _'_

_'Oh yeah? We'll see how that works for you in about three cycles.'_

* * *

Bonebite

Temperature: 72.2º F/22.3º C. Local time: 10:05. The sky, N/A[Indoors]. Lighting, average[Indoors].

"It's been nearly twelve whole vorns since you've last gone to a medic for maintenance. You're _not_ leaving the med bay until I clear you."

A full Terran week had gone by since Bonebite had been separated from his Charge. This did not sit well with him at all. Of course, he knew that the Autobots wouldn't harm a human without a _very_ good reason, and she'd done her best to contact him every evening, but the fact that she was out of his sight most of the time made him very antsy indeed. To pass the time he sometimes asked Ratchet about Danny, or how his repairs were coming along. Occasionally, about the human family she was staying with, and who in the Pit this 'Roadbuster' that she'd been spending so much time with was. Every time, he'd only gotten the bare minimum of information out of the medic. Nobody trusted him, at least, not yet. As it was, their conversation was in English so the human handler in the room could understand what was being said, much to Bonebite's chagrin.

"Between you and your Charge I've been asked enough repetitive questions to drive me mad." Grumbled Ratchet as he peeled away the temporary plating on Bonebite's side. "It's like you two are running on simultaneous system loops and can't be shut down. Neither of you will stop asking about each other and interrupting my work. It'll be a relief when you finally get out of my med bay and leave me in peace."

"Still another two cycles before we're free of each other." Bonebite sat up carefully, letting his feet rest on the floor as he let Ratchet get better access to his side. He'd been allowed more and more of his systems back, several blocks being removed each day, and now he could walk and move at a decent speed. Maybe even a jog, though Prowl's presence had kept him from checking his limits. He'd at least been allowed to get up and walk around the med bay- under Prowl's supervision, of course- to test his frame and make sure everything was healing correctly. During that time, Ratchet had made a real armor plate replacement for his side. He could just wait until he had enough energon to form a whole new one, but that was time consuming and he really wanted to be out of the med bay as soon as possible.

"Perhaps less than that." Ratchet gently prodded the wiring in his side and nodded his approval. "You heal fast, especially now that all of your systems are up to date and fully functional. How do you feel?"

"Far better than when I first came online here." He watched the medic pick up the new piece of armor and proceed to set it into place. The alloy was very nearly as strong as his natural armor, but was still a structural weakness, as the bright green-yellow mech made sure he knew.

"Try not to get hit here again, if you can avoid it." Ratchet had him stand up and stretch his torso to ensure the new plate fit properly with the others. After a quick adjustment to keep it from catching on to his surrounding plates and that injury was fully taken care of. Bonebite held still while the medic ran a few last scans on him. "From the looks of things, you're very nearly back to one-hundred percent. Don't transform until tomorrow morning at the earliest, but otherwise, you're fit enough to leave the med bay this afternoon."

"Truly?" Bonebite didn't smile, not really, but his perpetual frown was very much lessened. "I can see my Charge a full cycle early?"

"Yes, so long as you don't ruin yourself like that again within twenty-four joors."

"I do not plan on it."

"Nobody ever _plans_ on ending up in my ward." Ratchet put away his tools, closing the various cabinets and storage units that housed them, before turning to face the ex-Decepticon. "Wander with care when you leave the med bay, Bonebite. Do try to remember that your current colors make some of our trigger fingers very twitchy. Not all of us have medic blocks on our weapons systems."

Bonebite bowed his head slightly, acknowledging the truth of Ratchet's words. "I will keep that in mind."


	6. Revelations

**Author's Note:** Finals should be over soon and summer is almost upon me, thankfully, so I'll _possibly_ be able to update at a more rapid clip. Once we get to the more plotty bits things should start rolling pretty quickly anyway.

Steelfeathers: A crack fic like that would be _hilarious, _especially that poor hapless human suddenly having to deal with all of the Autobots him/herself(could you _imagine_?). Oi, vey. As for Danny and Roadbuster bonding so quickly, for them it_ has_ been something like a week and a half, and Danny's spent most of her waking hours in his company. And anyway, Roadbuster didn't strike me as a very self-aware fellow when it comes to subtle things like that; I imagine his protocols snuck up on him almost as much as they did on Bones.

Phoenix: No kidding. Hopefully this chapter will live up to your expectations.  
Thanks for the kind words, guys!

* * *

**Guardian**

**6- Revelations**

_Soundwave reporting: I've discovered where Bonebite and his... pet, are. Currently, the traitor is inside the Autobot base and has been for the last several orns. Likely, being repaired and forming alliances. He's shown his true colors, it would seem._

_Megatron had made it very clear that Bonebite was to be taken out before he could pass the Autobots information, and yet you say he's been with them for that long already?_

_Calm yourself, Starscream. From what I've been able to gather he hasn't told them much of anything, as of this joor. Certainly nothing of importance. It is possible he doesn't recall everything yet._

_But he will. We need to take care of him, and soon, but we don't have the power to storm their base as long as Prime and Ironhide remain nearby. Not without taking too many casualties to make it worth our while. No, he must be cut away from them. Have you gotten anything we can use to draw him out?_

_Perhaps. He should follow his pet if it strays out of bounds, throw his life on the line to protect it if it's in danger. He could have fled from RedNova and left it behind, and yet, he did not. If we can put his pet in a situation that works to our advantage..._

_...Then we can snare him as well. Have you any information on it?_

_Very little. Bonebite's fleshling is staying with the cluster of insects that Ironhide is responsible for. Assuming we catch them while Ironhide and his mate are out, or while they're all separated from the Autobots, we can deal a blow to that mech as well by slaughtering his precious fleshlings._

_Good thinking. Anything that throws Ironhide off is a good move to take. Of course, that's assuming they will stray far enough from the Autobots on their own. Let me know when the time comes to strike. Perhaps I'll send Barricade this time to squash the insects._

_Understood._

_See that you attend to the matter quickly. Megatron is getting very impatient and I can't keep him out of these affairs for long. Starscream out._

* * *

Roadbuster

Leadfoot was displeased.

"_Blast it to the Pit! You were stupid enough, _careless _enough, to let your Guardian protocols activate! On a human you've known barely two weeks, no less! Of all the fraggin' half-witted, idiotic, mindless, _irresponsible _things you could've done, this ranks pretty damned high on the list!_"

Very displeased.

Roadbuster held his ground, not budging an inch as the red mech got right up to his faceplates to vent his anger. Topspin was trying to keep the humans on the rebuilding site calm, including Danny, while the other Wreckers... _worked out_ their problems. Danny herself didn't know of his current order of priorities; he hadn't mentioned it since he'd discovered the activated protocols the night before, and Chromia had been entirely mute to the girl when they'd left to come here to the rebuilding site.

Still, it was so obvious that she could tell something was very off and that it regarded her, what with all the dark looks Leadfoot had given her upon Roadbuster revealing his issue to the red mech. All in Cybertronian, of course, because he wasn't sure it was such a good idea to spread the news around. It'd been an accident, after all. One that he didn't mind, really, but that everyone else was treating as a major problem. It'd really only happened because they'd spent most of the last week and a half together in some form or another, and he'd begun to actually care about her well-being beyond what the other mechs did. And, yes, he'd been an idiot not to pay more attention to that sort of thing. But he was not usually prone to making connections with people, protocols aside. It'd been a shock to _him_ too.

"_This won't affect my work here, ye have my word on that._" Roadbuster growled, keeping his back straight and glaring down at the fellow Wrecker. He was taller than Leadfoot, but lacked the, well, bulk.

"_That's not the point!_" He bellowed back. Out of the corners of his optics, Roadbuster could see the human techs and workers retreating into the buildings. Epps and Danny remained outside, though, the former watching with quiet anger, the latter with worry. "_You were s'posed to watch 'er, I got that much. An' I admitted she was useful. But you bloody _bonded _with her. Bein' a warden and bein' a Guardian are vastly different things. How much do you know 'bout 'er, really? What in the Pit made you think becoming a Guardian to a stranger like 'er was a great idea?_" Leadfoot let out a gust of air from his vents and rubbed his faceplates, grumbling. "_When'd it happen, anyway?_"

"_Like I said, t'was an accident._" The green Wrecker folded his arms. "_Th'lass is harmless, alright? And from my system diagnostics me protocols activated only two days ago. S'not like I bonded with'er on_ sight."

"_Still left with the ittsy bittsy issue of you bein' a bloody Guardian! D'you realize that now you're goin' to have to be out protectin' her all the time for the rest of her life?_"

"_She's human, Leadfoot. How much trouble could she get into, really? An' she likes stayin' around the Autobots; can't be too much of a hassle, right?_"

"_Wrong! Primus, Roadbuster, you're smarter than this; act like it! Bee's Charge kept gettin' into trouble the first several _years, _just to name an example. Bee had to stay out there with'im the whole damned time until he'd been called back by Prime. An' humans need interaction with their own species; this __isn't a responsibility you can take lightly!_" Leadfoot was gesturing to the framework of the partly constructed ship behind him as he spoke, and abruptly pointed a finger down to Danny now. "_You haven't even told 'er yet, have you?_"

"_Not yet._" He admitted, grudgingly, and shrugged a bit. "_But I will. Soon. It wasn't like I planned on this t'happen, alright? I jus' need to figure out how things are goin' t'work between us now. I'm keepin' me job here; ye two wankers couldn't put th'engine back together without me. But..._"

"_But now you need to work around a human schedule. Great slaggin' job, mate._"

"Is _anybody_ going to explain just what the fuck is going on here?" That outburst, in English, cut through their conversation. They looked down at Danny who had her arms folded, tapping her foot against the pavement, while she gave them both dark looks.

"Just let'em work it out." Advised Epps mildly as he went through some papers on a clipboard. He didn't even bother looking up while he talked. "The more they let out on each other, the less they do on us. Ignore it."

"Getting their attention like that just makes it harder for the rest of us!" Hissed another worker from inside. Darlton, that was his surname, if Roadbuster could recall correctly. He probably thought he was speaking low enough for them not to hear, but he had no idea how sensitive their audio receptors were. Roadbuster and Leadfoot exchanged looks while Topspin rubbed the back of his neck; they weren't _that_ bad to the humans… were they?

Finally venting a blast of air in disgust, Leadfoot gestured to Danny and folded his arms. The meaning was clear: _explain things to her_. Darlton had ducked back into the building with the other workers, and Epps had turned his eyes on them warily at Leadfoot's actions. Roadbuster shook his head slightly before kneeling and making sure he had Danny's attention; no trouble there, since she'd been watching the whole thing with increasing agitation.

"Mind if we, ah, talk in private for a wee bit?"

She nodded without even a moments hesitation and he stood up again to walk around the side of the huge storage building. He glanced over his shoulder at Leadfoot's disapproving figure and Epp's much smaller concerned one. Topspin sent him a quick '_have fun_' over the comm before getting back to work. When he and Danny were out of eye and earshot of the others, he knelt back down to better converse with her, and she had her hands stuffed into the pockets of her jumpsuit while she waited for him to start. He couldn't bring himself to say it out loud just yet, though. Doing so would admit that he'd been careless with his programming, that he'd erred so badly as to stick her with the responsibility of, well, him. Now she'd either have to work her schedule to his so he could do his job, or he'd have to only come to the rebuilding site whenever she was able to. Either way, it wasn't fair to her, and he knew it.

"So, ah... Sorry about Leadfoot." He began carefully. "He seems ta think yer a distraction t'me. And Topspin." Maybe less Topspin than him, but still accurate. "Is there any other safe place ye could go? Anythin' productive ye could be doin'?" Sure, it'd put her out of his sight, but he wouldn't mind it so much as long as she were someplace he knew of, and that she would be secure there.

"Not really." Danny shrugged and leaned against the metal wall of the storage building. "I wanted to try doing those college courses you could do at home but I don't have the money for it. And Mearing's put me on 'house arrest' if I'm not with an Autobot like you, and there's nothing for me to do at the Lennox house except babysit Annabelle."

Roadbuster sifted through his memory banks; he'd have to take her off the rebuilding site while Leadfoot cooled off, and possibly find a better place to let her know of his protocols, but he'd have to stay with her to avoid having Mearing's wrath turn on him or his Charge. "I heard yer friend is gettin' out today or tomorrow?" He and the other Wreckers had been politely asked to not drop in on the med bay until day after tomorrow. Optimus Prime was, apparently, holding a meeting then to get the new Cybertronian introduced to everyone. But, hey, he wouldn't exactly be dropping in on the mech so much as... being at the base while Danny did so. Surely that was a loophole they couldn't offline him over.

At the mention of her mystery friend, Danny's face lit up. "You'd take me to see him?"

"Sure. Can't hide from Mearing for th'rest of yer life, aye? Might as well visit yer friend since ye haven't seen him since we've met anyway." The sound of his two best mates arguing floated through the air and he chuckled; apparently Topspin had snuck his infamous little RC Chopper to the rebuilding site and Leadfoot was threatening to go on a rampage and destroy every single one of those things in a ten click radius. Even Danny grinned.

"Maybe we should just leave now, huh? Before Leadfoot decides to get pissier with us?" He transformed even as she spoke

"Aye, good idea."

It was a two hour drive to the NEST base from the Xantium rebuilding site, and they spent most of the in silence. Danny seemed pensive, staring out the window with her chin in her hand as she mulled over something or other. Roadbuster was trying to think of the best way to explain his protocols to her; this was one time he didn't want to shoot his mouth off unnecessarily.

"Lass, ye know how we've become... friends? How we've been spendin' so much time together?"

"...Yeah." Her tone was suspicious and he hadn't even said ten words to her yet. Maybe it wasn't the best time to bring this up, but he couldn't keep this from her forever. No, it would have to be now. Sooner the better, and his direct nature had him thinking it would be best to be blunt and stop 'beating around the bush' as the human phrase went.

"I've got programming inside of me that allows for me ta bond t'a human beyond simple friendship."

"Whoa, Roadbuster, I do believe this is rather sudden." Her tone had gone light and airy, something she usually did to keep moments like this from getting too heavy. "You're a nice guy and I like you and everything, but, woe, I'm afraid that I don't think it'd work out between us." Clearly, she was just teasing him now, especially if that grin on her face was anything to go by.

He snorted. "Not what I meant, and ye know it. No, I meant I have programming called the Guardian protocols that let me," Now he had to search around for a comfortable word to use; didn't want to make her more uncomfortable than necessary. Not 'fixate' or 'obsess', or even 'adopt.' "Imprint on ye." There, that worked out nicely.

It was then he realized she'd stilled the moment he'd mentioned the protocols. Ah, slag, that usually wasn't a good sign in humans. Was imprinting a bad word choice after all?

"...Guardian protocols?" Danny pulled her hands away from the wheel, which she usually held on to to make it seem as though she were actually driving, and hugged herself. "I... Okay. I can have two Guardians?"

"_Two_ Guardians?" Primus, what was she talking about? He knew none of the other Wreckers had fixed on her, and Ironhide and Chromia already had the Lennox's. And she simply hadn't spent much time with any other Autobots, save perhaps Sideswipe and Mirage, and those two would've stayed more if _their _protocols had activated. But that didn't concern him as much as the fact that he'd fixed on someone who was already a Charge. Not a problem in and of itself, but the fact that he didn't think he knew who her other Guardian was had him wary. "Ye have one already?"

"Well, yeah. Bones helped me out because apparently his protocols fixed on me. Didn't the others tell you?" Confusion in her voice, and it seemed genuine. That didn't stop him from feeling a bit betrayed; surely, someone would've told him about this. This was a _seriously _big bit of a big deal, separating a Guardian from his Charge; and not being told about it!

"I s'pose it never came up." He grumbled, having a mind to go and kick the afts of Prowl and Ratchet and anyone else who'd likely known about this and not told him. "And aye, ye can have more than one Guardian, but it's rare."

"That's... actually kind of neat. I guess now I can hop from one to the other when I get sick of you, mm?" More teasing, and he appreciated her trying to lighten his mood.

And then the silver lining showed itself as he thought it over, a bright light on the horizon of his heap of troubles. This solved everything! The other Guardian, Bones, could keep an eye on Danny while he himself worked on the Xantium. They could take turns instead of being forced to schedule entirely around a human's life. Leadfoot could quit his complaining and he'd still get work done, and this Bones fellow could continue to recover in peace in the meantime. It would all work out after all. His mood shifted from shocked agitation to something almost cheerful.

They arrived at the base without fanfare, or as little as Roadbuster could manage; he didn't want Mearing coming down on himself or Danny. From what he'd heard, she was still after his Charge for what she'd done during her last visit. The recording still made Roadbuster laugh. After she hopped out of his cabin he transformed and went inside to survey the building. If Mearing actually was around, he'd leave, simple as that.

The base was relatively empty today, thankfully, which made sneaking in fairly easy even for a multi-ton alien robot such as himself. And, better, Mearing was nowhere to be seen. Most of the staff that were present either didn't know Danny, having not been around when she arrived, or didn't like Mearing any more than the girl did. The chances of the woman herself getting called in seemed pretty slim. He nodded in greeting to a few of the ones he knew before waving Danny inside. The Wrecker had to constantly remind himself to walk slowly so that she could keep up; the difference in their strides was pronounced, to put it lightly.

The med bay's door was sealed shut for the moment, as per usual, but Roadbuster took a moment to look down at Danny before opening it. She seemed happy, at least, that they were visiting her friend. With luck, maybe he could get along with the mystery mech as well.

"Get on with it, 'Buster." Good-natured banter, and Danny waved him on. Shaking his head and grinning at her, he tapped in his access code and the door slid open.

The first thing that he registered was that there were, in fact, three mechs total inside of the med bay. Ratchet, of course, since it was his ward. Prowl, surprisingly, and this had his smile fading even before he really took a good look the third occupant. And, finally, the one called 'Bones' who shared Guardian responsibilities to Danny with him. Black with some silver plating between the armor and some sort of white designs along it, cannons on his arms that were inactive, a knife sheath in his leg, a pair of short horns jutting up and back from his head. He sat on the berth with his feet planted on the floor, hands folded and elbow-joints resting on his knees, apparently in the middle of conversation with Prowl and Ratchet.

All three mechs looked up at the sound of the door sliding open. Down below, Roadbuster's sensors picked up Danny moving forward into the med bay ahead of him while his optics locked onto the new mech. Three gazes flicked right to him. Two were the familiar, comforting blue of his allies and comrades.

And the third… was a dull, dangerous red.

* * *

Bonebite

Temperature: 72.5º F/22.5º C. Local time: 12:53. The sky, N/A[Indoors]. Lighting, average[Indoors]

Bonebite had no clear memories of the fight itself, save that it was short and brutal and ended with him smashed into a wall with fingers at his neck and his attacker being held at bay by forces not under his control.

Danger, danger, _danger._

He remembered the moments before quite clearly, every detail in sharp focus as systems within him fought the medical blocks, trying to activate his weapons the moment he picked up on hostility directed at him. A new mech had walked into the med bay, but he hadn't paid him much mind at first when he spotted his Charge skipping along beside the newcomer. He'd scanned her out of habit, making sure she was healthy and whole. He remembered his findings; she'd gained some weight in muscle and her fur… no, hair, had become glossy where it'd been dull before. Her eyes were brighter than when they'd first met and all signs of injuries were gone from her.

Bonebite had been torn from this pleasing review of his Charge when he got the sense that there was a hazard in the room with him and Danny. His optics moved to the new mech. Green, loaded with weapons, optics covered with a visor. A grin that faded the moment they looked at each other. He'd felt more than heard Prowl beginning to shift from the other side of the room even as he'd instinctively raised his arms to block the blow he _knew_ was coming.

For a single, unprepared mech, the green Autobot packed a Pit of a punch. Bonebite had hooked his legs under the berth and rocked backwards with the blow to dissipate the force. Because of the medic blocks on his own systems he'd been unable to turn his cannon on the hostile Autobot or even to raise a hand in return. All he'd been able to do was defend by blocking.

Everything after that was a blur. From the looks of things, he thought as he shook his head to clear it, Prowl had moved in after the green mech had thrown him into the far wall and come after him. Prowl kept him there, pinned, while he and Ratchet both pushed his attacker away. They were yelling at him in Cybertronian, telling him not to attack, to _cease fire_. Still dazed from what must've been a few heavy blows to his head, he turned his optics to the attacker himself, aware of the steady drip-drip-dripping of energon leaving his newly re-torn lines. They were some of the smaller ones, thank Primus. The green mech's shoulder cannons were raised and armed, and his face was set into an angry snarl, though he didn't fire. Slowly, in fact, he was starting to stand down under the combined weight of Prowl and Ratchet's orders.

Pain finally made itself known when he tried to move Prowl's hand away. The green one was fast, having been able to land several punches to his head and chest from the feel of things. The movement made the green one raise his shoulder cannons again, though Prowl had finally had enough of this nonsense and moved away from Bonebite to bodily throw the green one against the berth to get him to calm down. Given space, Bonebite quickly scanned for his Charge; had she been hurt in the scuffle? She'd been underfoot and the med bay wasn't that large. He didn't like to think that he or someone else had inadvertently stepped on her.

Ah, there she was, hiding in the doorway with wide, worried eyes. Upon seeing him look over to her, she quickly sprinted between the legs and feet of the mechs, skirting the berth entirely, to run up to him. He let himself slide down the wall and held out a hand to her, intending on getting her off the ground and out of harms way, and instantly the green mech cussed him out before Prowl growled at him to quiet down. Danny'd frozen a few meters from him at the sound, though, looking between him and the green mech.

The standstill remained that way for half a breem before Ratchet let out a long whoosh of air from his vents and rubbed his faceplates. Prowl slowly let the green mech stand up straight and moved slightly so they could all look at each other, although he stayed half in between them to ward off any further attempts at fighting. The green mech didn't lower his cannons entirely, but he didn't rearm them either.

"_Ye've got a fragging Decepticon in here, doc?_" The green one rumbled angrily, body-language still very hostile as he turned to the medic. "_Why dinna we hear 'bout this?_"

"_Because you idiots would've reacted _exactly _as you just did; without thinking and without all the information._" Snapped Ratchet in return. "_Optimus was going to introduce him to the rest of you tomorrow, under controlled circumstances, so that you _wouldn't _overreact and cause him harm as you just proceeded to do._" Ratchet moved to Bonebite now, helping him back to his feet and scanning his myriad assortment of new injuries. Danny moved away from them to stand by Prowl's foot, still watching them all with a wariness that seemed to come naturally to her. "_You _know _you have a violent temperament when it comes to Decepticons. You and all the Wreckers, for that matter. We couldn't let you know what he was before he was recovered enough to present himself._"

"_Overreact? How in the Pit am I overreactin'? He's a damned enemy and ye let him in here!_" The green mech's fingers flexed before he turned his attention to the sole human in the room, finally switching to english for her benefit. "Did ye know he's a Decepticon?"

Danny winced a little at his tone, though she didn't cringe or flinch back, and Bonebite growled a warning; he didn't want that mech talking to his Charge at all, much less with that tone of voice. "Well, yeah. An _ex_-Decepticon. Didn't anyone tell you _anything?_" She looked to Ratchet and Prowl now, confusion and a little bit of anger on her face. He could almost hear her accusing them, 'this never would've happened if you'd been honest about this.'

The green mech snorted and folded his arms, turning his mutinous glare to the other mechs as well. "No. I'm beginning' t'think we've been kept in th'dark about a lot of things lately." He gave Bonebite a once over before turning back to Ratchet. "Anythin' _else_ I should know 'bout?"

"You know he's the girl's Guardian?"

"Aye, that much she told me."

"Good. That's everything big. Now, with that out of the way," Ratchet turned away from them and fished around in the cabinets along the wall opposite the door before pulling out a tool. He faced the green mech again and hurled the object which turned out to be a large wrench, at him. It clanged off the green mech's head and sent him reeling and cursing, making for the doorway before he could get hit again. "If you _ever_ harm a patient of mine again, Roadbuster, I'm going to take away your guns and weld your aft to the ceiling!" Ratchet shouted after him.

So _that_ had been Roadbuster? The mech Danny'd spent so much time with? He looked down at his little human, who hovered uncertainly and looked back and forth between him and the doorway. While it made sense, rationally, that she'd made friends with the mech she'd been spending so much time with, it still rankled a little that she might be seriously considering leaving him in the med bay to go after Roadbuster. He could just see the mech poking his head in, cautiously so as to avoid getting wrenched a second time, eyeing him and Danny closely. Bonebite growled again, ignoring Prowl's hand on his shoulder.

It was simple, really. He didn't like the idea of Danny spending time near that violently dangerous mech (who also happened to have made it onto his top ten enemies list for his sudden and unprovoked attack; he told himself this was just secondary reasoning). And, worse, he didn't like the way Roadbuster was looking at his Charge. Roadbuster glared at him in response to his warning, but made no move to enter as long as Ratchet and Prowl were there.

"Knock it off, the both of you!" Snapped Danny, causing them all to look down at her. She had her hands on her hips and was tapping her foot, and Bonebite had the unbidden image of his own femme creator in a similar pose when he'd knocked over a storage chest as a sparkling cross his mind. "Clearly there were some misunderstandings before, but let's get them all straightened out so we can have a little peace around here. Capiche?"

"Ye stayed quiet as well, lass. If ye'd told me everythin'-"

"I thought you already _knew_ everything. You don't usually like it when people tell you shit you already know, so of course I held off." She sounded exasperated, though he had to look away from her while Ratchet opened up his chest plates to weld the thin lines together again and repair the other damage done to him. Prowl had moved to lean back against his usual spot on the wall by the door, though he was definitely still tense. "Look, guys, I just want the air cleared. Okay? Is that too much to ask for you to all be open and honest with each other?" He watched Ratchet give the human a look over his shoulder. "Well, to an extent, anyway? It might cut back on how many people end up in your wards."

"I will be if _he_ is." Roadbuster now leaned against the doorframe, keeping his distance so as not to get rebuffed but making his presence very well known. "Are ye a spy? Did ye come here ta kill us all while we had our back turned? D'ye even really have yer Guardian protocols still or have ye been trickin' this lass this whole damned time."

"He has his protocols, _believe_ me. I checked." The medic interrupted Bonebite's angry retort. Of course he had his protocols fixed on this human. _His_ human. Danny shouldn't be anywhere near that thick helmed, violent green mech as far as he was concerned. That mech had far less attachment to _his_ human than Bonebite did.

Ratchet put the last of the ex-Decepticon's energon lines together before shutting his chest plates and beginning a few scans on his head to make sure there was no damage to his CPU, mentioning that if he was cleared of head injuries he'd be free to go. Bonebite let the medic work but kept an optic on Roadbuster the entire time. Only the cold red visor watched him in return.

Danny sighed from somewhere by his feet, and he felt triumphant in the fact that she'd come to him without being asked, as opposed to going to the green Wrecker in the doorway.

"So how's this dual Guardianship thing going to work with you two trying to kill each other?"

Ratchet stilled and turned to look over his shoulder at Roadbuster. Any sense of elation drained away from Bonebite at her words as he, too, stopped moving entirely. Roadbuster himself only raised an eyebrow at him, his expression clearly saying, 'yeah, and, what of it?' Prowl did not react beyond a slight tilt of the head.

"_You fixed on her?_" Hissed Ratchet. Roadbuster nodded tightly, giving Bonebite another hostile look. "_You're a slagging idiot._" The medic shook his head and returned to work without further comment.

"I realize this may not be the time, but, English for the human, please? Kinda tired of everyone talking around me in techno."

"Apologies, Danny." Ratchet deemed Bonebite good to go, more or less, as long as he did nothing particularly strenuous and avoided another fight. He pointed a wrench at Roadbuster threateningly, and the green Wrecker ducked immediately despite the fact that the tool hadn't even left the medic's hand. "That means you leave him be, or you'll face Optimus. Understood?"

"Aye, aye, understood." Groused the mech, waving his hands as though to ward off another denting. Satisfied, Ratchet went to put his tools back in their usual locations and attempt to move his most recent patient to his feet.

Bonebite himself hadn't budged so much as a Terran inch after hearing Danny's previous statement. Dual-Guardianship? This hostile, stupid mech was also Guardian to _his human?_ No, he did not like that, not one little bit. He stood up abruptly, causing Prowl to shoot him a warning look and Ratchet to become wary. Roadbuster folded his arms and waited for the ex-Decepticon to make his move.

Danny, refusing to let the rising tension in the room bother her, started walking to the doorway while asking with forced cheer, "So, Roadbuster, do the other Wreckers know about this yet?"

"They do now."

"And?"

"They're just as pissed as I am."

"Well that's no good, since he's coming with us."

Bonebite put a hand to his faceplates while Roadbuster spluttered in protest. Ratchet started laughing, of all things, at their current situation.

"I'm serious! He can't stay here forever and he's as much my Guardian as _you_ are. Hell, he's been mine longer, so buck up and deal with it." He looked between his fingers and saw Danny smack the foot of the Wrecker before marching out in a huff. Roadbuster looked after her incredulously before looking back at Bonebite and closing the distance between them. Prowl shifted against the wall but did not stop him.

"Listen here, 'Con. Ye harm one hair on her head and I'll end ye myself." Roadbuster was almost as tall as Bonebite, now that they were close enough for him to accurately compare. Not as broad and bit shorter, but presence made up for a lot. Bonebite met Roadbuster's glare with an impassive stare of his own.

"I would never harm her. Although I think I'd have to worry about _you_ putting her in danger unnecessarily, what with your... _violent attitude issues._"

"Out, the both of you." Ratchet's hands came down on their shoulders as he forcefully guided them out of the med bay. Danny was waiting outside for them, expression unamused. Roadbuster jerked his shoulder out of Ratchet's hand and moved for his Charge. Bonebite elbowed the Wrecker away, growling again. The absolute worst part of this was that he knew that if this green mech's protocols _had_ activated on Danny, they'd be seeing a lot of each other. He certainly wasn't going to be leaving her alone with this guy, that was for sure.

Movement further back in the large hangar area caught his optics and he turned his attention to the approaching group of humans. Two females and a quartet of males. One female was laden with several of the relatively useless carrying devices that the females of this planet seemed to favor, and the males all carried weapons. That must mean the unburdened female in front was the leader, though he had no clue who she was. He heard Roadbuster mutter an expletive beside him and glanced down at Danny. His Charge turned and grimaced upon seeing the incoming group. Definitely not friends, then. He wondered if he needed to defend her or if that would just get him killed by the Autobots.

Very well, he'd wait and see, though this didn't sit well with him.

* * *

Danny

Oh dammit all to hell and back again… _twice! _It was _Mearing_. Danny put on her best poker face and remained where she stood while the woman and her posse closed the gap. No way she was backing down here, especially not after what happened during her last stay at the base.

"Coleson," Mearing did not smile or offer her hand as others might have on greeting. Not that Danny would've shaken it if she had, quite frankly. "So you've finally crawled out from whatever rock you've been hiding under for the last two weeks. Did Lennox finally get tired of you, or did the Wreckers decide you were useless?"

"Ahh, Mearing, I was wondering why it suddenly got so cold in here. Good to see a frigid bitch like yourself hasn't melted yet. Or maybe I need a bucket of water for that." Danny's tone was sickly sweet as she batted her eyelashes to the older woman.

Behind her she could hear Roadbuster and Bonebite share a quiet, agitated conversation in that weird mechanical language of theirs; apparently they still didn't trust each other enough to form a comm link. It would probably would be a long time before that happened, though. That was a headache for another day, though. Today's was looking at her like she was a bit of scum in the corner of a public bathroom sink.

"I see you finally got your traitor up and on its feet. And you control it, I wonder? Because if it does so much as a single thing out of line we're going to shut it down. And you'll be subject to the consequences as well."

Danny bristled at Mearing's words. Bonebite was a being unto himself, and she spoke of him as though he were a thing with a remote or a control panel. She wondered how none of the Autobots had done her in yet; she was pissed at the woman's words, and she wasn't even the target! Bonebite himself spoke to Mearing now.

"I have assured all who have asked that I will cause no harm to the Autobots or their allies." He leaned down very slightly, putting Danny into shadow while he made sure he had Mearing's close attention. "But my first and foremost task is to ensure my Charge is safe and happy. If you do anything to endanger her... I cannot _predict_ what would happen."

Off to the left she heard Roadbuster snort, but she didn't look over. Instead, she just enjoyed the expression on Mearing's face while the director looked up at her Guardian.

"Are you threatening me?"

"Promising." He said simply, before he straightened and tilted his head a little, as though he didn't quite know what to make of her. "You know very little of me and my kind, fleshling. You don't know what you're dealing with."

"I don't suppose you know anything about me." Mearing retorted, meeting Bonebite's eyes with her cold ones. "I'm what makes this whole place run the way it does. The government wouldn't function without people like me."

"Then perhaps ending your life would fix more problems than it would cause."

At that, Mearing's face turned red with anger and she turned her sights back on Danny. "You're just going to let it talk like that? You _are_ aware that if it displays hostility it will be destroyed."

"_He,_ dammit." Danny had to resist the urge to stomp her foot like a child throwing a tantrum; it wouldn't win her any points here. "He's got a name and he's self-aware. Treat him with the respect he fucking deserves… you _bitch_."

Mearing's frown deepened and she held out her hand imperiously to the woman just behind her. The purse-carrier quickly searched through the many bags before pulling out a notepad and handing it to the director. Mearing didn't even look back as she took it and began writing things down.

"I'm going to have you confined to one of the cells we have here, Miss Coleson." She looked up from the pad of paper to Danny. "You'll stay there until all of our questions have been answered, and properly this time." The way the woman said those words had Danny eyeing her carefully. It wasn't just going to be a simple interrogation, not with the tone of voice she'd used. The idea of being held indefinitely and possibly being psychologically broken didn't appeal to her at all. Behind her, Bonebite growled, low and deadly.

Roadbuster, who had up to this point remained quiet, finally intervened. "Ye really don't want t'be doin' that. There's th'wee little problem that this mech is a Decepticon, and if ye locked Danny up I'd be _forced_ to cooperate with 'im to get her back. An' I _hate_ cooperating with Decepticons."

"What sort of stake do you have in this, Wrecker? She's _its_ Charge, not yours. You don't have to lift a finger to help it. And if it does anything to stop me... Well, I can just give Optimus a ring and have him come destroy it." Still, infuriatingly, not using 'he' to refer to Bonebite, Danny noted.

"Ah, see, that's th' other itty bitty problem. The lass is _my_ Charge too." That had Mearing off-balance. The director blinked up at Roadbuster, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. Bested, she turned on Danny and jabbed a finger against her sternum. "You won't always have them around to protect you."

Danny swatted the prodding finger away. "Ouch, Mearing. Careful, or I'll file assault charges on you." She didn't bother trying to stop the bitter smile that crept across her face. "Or does the law only apply to everyone _else?_"

"Assault? _Assault?_" Mearing raised her finger again, this time nearly poking Danny's face. "Don't you dare use that cheap card on me, Coleson. I've got witnesses to that little stunt you pulled two weeks ago-"

"Self defense, Mearing." She cut in, waving the matter away. "I think I bruised up when you grabbed my arm that time. How could I do anything but protect myself from your, well… _fury?_" Danny's smile didn't waver. The guard to the right of Mearing let out a choked laughed and quickly covered it up with a coughing fit. Mearing herself gave the guard a hard stare before looking back at Danny.

"Are we done here?" Bonebite rumbled, interrupting Mearing before she could even get started. "I've spent a lot of time here lately and I'm tired of listening to your senseless prattling, fleshling." He reached down and offered his hand to Danny, and she gleefully hopped on despite Roadbuster's protests. "I'm leaving. _With_ my Charge." Bonebite straightened and carried Danny out through the hangar doors, completely ignoring Mearing as she shouted after him. Danny grinned up at her Guardian and he looked down long enough to wink back.

Roadbuster joined them outside, chuckling. "Ye've tweaked her but _good_, lass. I'd suggest not coming back here more than ye absolutely need to, however. She might mutiny and do somethin' rash." His amusement left his face when he focused on Bonebite, though. "A warning to ye, 'Con. I don' like Mearing any more than you do, and I'll help ye get Danny if she tries to take her. But if ye raise a hand at her or any other human unprovoked I will hunt ye down."

"As you said when you believed I could do harm to Danny."

"I _still_ don't think yer t'be trusted with her."

"Boys, boys, let's cool it a little, alright?" Playing mediator to a pair of alien robots wasn't something Danny had planned on doing that morning, but it was better than letting them get into another heated argument… or worse… another fight. She looked up at her first Guardian. "You feeling okay, Bones? Fully healed?"

"Yes, more or less. No thanks to this piece of scrap here."

"Now just a moment.." Roadbuster started hotly, stepping forward and raising a hand.

"_Hey!_ Knock it _off!_" Geez, they were like a pair of five year old boys. Shaking her head, she folded her arms and waited until they were both looking at her. There was definitely still tension between them but at least they weren't focused on each other. "Good. I like the _both_ of you, alright? I'd really rather not have to pick one to spend all my time with so do you guys think you could, I don't know, play nice?"

"Lass... D'ye even know what the 'Cons have done ta us over th'vorns?"

"Yeah. Bones and Ironhide filled me in. I got it."

"And ye still trust him?"

"I... believe he is what he says he is, which is a _former_ Decepticon. And he saved my life. According to everyone and their mother, that's apparently something that no _real_ Decepticon would've done."

Bonebite 'blinked' at her in surprise. Was it really blinking if his lights just shut off momentarily? Did they even need to do that, or did it serve no real purpose other than to make them more relatable to humans? Blinking was the closest human analogue she could come up with for it, anyway. Their expressions were still a little difficult for her to read, seeing as two weeks of experience with their species only went so far. Still, they did seem very similar to her kind when it came to gestures and general build, and Bonebite would look almost grateful, of all things, if he'd been human.

"So could you guys please, _please_, try to _not_ kill each other? It'd really suck to lose one of you. Just saying."

Roadbuster groaned and paced a circle in the small parking lot, looking over his shoulder at Bonebite occasionally before shaking his head.

"I make no promises, Danny, but I'll not start any scuffles with him." She could almost hear his unsaid words, accent and all, 'but I'll sure finish them.'

"And I will not instigate. But I _will_ defend."

Danny let out a long sigh and rubbed her temples while her Guardians glared daggers at each other. This was going to be _tons_ of fun, she could already tell.

* * *

Chad Orburn had been having a very long day. Between the four-hour, excruciatingly dull meeting at work, being asked to file thirteen different spreadsheets and income reports, and having to go to the principal's office to deal with his son's problematic academic career, he was very emotionally drained. All he wanted to do right now was finish up this last set of reports for his boss and crawl into bed with his wife. A quick glance at the clock showed it was nearly three in the morning. He'd be leaving, again, for work in less than five hours, and he held the bridge of his nose briefly before returning to his current financial log.

Something pinged out of his desktop and in his overworked state it took him a minute to realize it was his email. If his boss was trying to get him to do one more set of reports...

But, no, it just seemed to be a bit of spam; there was nothing in the senders address, and he checked the box to the side of it before doing a double take to the subject. 'TRISHA COLESON.' He blanched and looked over his shoulder; his wife was still in bed, his office deserted except for himself. He scratched his chin as he returned his stare to the email, now very much awake. Nobody knew his affiliation with the late Trisha Coleson. Nobody... Who would be emailing him about her now? She'd been dead for nearly _twenty years_.

Still, this had to be addressed; it wouldn't do for his wife to see another woman's name in his email, deceased or not. And the fact that somebody knew he'd had a connection with this woman while he'd been engaged with his current wife, well... This had to be dealt with. If only because of the sort of information this email might contain; none of it could get out, or it might jeopardize his upcoming promotion. With a sinking feeling in his gut, Chad opened the email and began to read.

"Unbelievable." He muttered, scrolling slowly down. "There's no way..." The contents of the email forced him to sit back in his chair and let out a low whistle, hands clasped behind his head while he processed. "Not possible..." Denial, denial.

Maybe it was all a hoax, just a way to extort some money out of him. Maybe they, whoever _they_ were, had just found someone who could fit the role and were going to try and use it as leverage against him. Maybe it was a joke; he scratched that thought almost immediately. The sender had way too much factual information in here for it to be a simple prank. Whoever had sent this was more dangerous than he'd initially thought, if they had access to this information.

No, he'd go confront this person, whoever it was. He wrote down the name, date, and address before deleting the email and stuffing the bit of paper into his desk to deal with later. Without another word he got back to work. He sure wasn't going to be getting any sleep now.


	7. Acrimony

**Author's Note:** Man, just when I think I'll get to work on this and get some chapters out I end up going into surgery. And of course after I got done rolling around in agony and the pain meds finally wore off my muse decided to ditch me because I was being so lame. Talk about a kick in the pants. Recovery times are always longer than what your doctor tells you, take it from me.

* * *

**Guardian**

**7-Acrimony**

Danny

If it was possible, Danny hoped to never experience a drive that long and tense ever again. She rode in Bonebite, seeing as it'd been a while since they'd driven together, all the way back to the Lennox house with Roadbuster in the lead. The green Autobot had protested, of course, even after Danny promised to take turns. 'Tha' isn't the point, lass' he'd grumbled before transforming. Bonebite had looked, of all things, smug, as he too turned into his truck form.

Seriously, like a pair of five year olds.

They didn't talk to each other as far as Danny could tell, but she could still practically feel the anger and tension between them as they drove down the highway. She'd stayed silent the whole way back, not even bothering to try and ease them up with banter as she normally would have.

Chromia and Ironhide were in the driveway, and she felt the tension multiply tenfold when they parked alongside them. None of them liked Bonebite, that much was _quite_ obvious, and she couldn't help but feel defensive of her first Guardian. Though she knew it was irrational, she was irritated that they were so hostile towards him when he'd done nothing in return. Logically, of course, she understood that he'd probably done terrible things a long, long time ago and that there was a certain stigma that came with being a Decepticon, ex or not.

While she felt a little bad leaving Bonebite out in the driveway with three not-so-friendly Autobots while she retreated inside, it was mingled with guilty relief at getting away from the volatile atmosphere.

"Hey, Danny." Greeted Lennox from the kitchen. She smiled a little as she walked in to meet him. From the looks of things, he and Annabelle had been finger-painting if his colorful fingers and old, kaleidoscopically stained shirt were anything to go by. She could hear the girl in the other room, humming some tune or other over the rustling of paper. "How'd getting your friend back go?"

"Oh, it went well."

Right on cue, mechanical voices rose up angrily through the open window above the sink. Bones and Buster were getting into another argument in their odd techno language again, and she could hear the deep baritone of Ironhide as he ground out his two cents on whatever the matter was that they were getting so worked up about. Neither she nor Lennox said a word as the voices escalated and the sounds of transforming hit them, though the soldier peered outside the window with a concerned frown.

Danny was beginning to worry that they might actually harm each other at the rate they were going when Chromia's lighter voice cut through the argument. Everything went quiet for a beat or two before Chromia continued. The words were incomprehensible to the humans, but the tone was quite clearly pissed. Again, the sounds of transforming came from outside, then silence. Lennox looked at her.

"That well, huh?"

* * *

"You guys are such dweebs."

It was an hour or two after they'd arrived back at the Lennox household. Danny had eaten and showered and felt ready to take on the problems that awaited her in the driveway. Well, read_ier_. They hadn't left in a huff as she'd half expected them to, but they'd obviously played a game of musical parking spots or something. Chromia and Ironhide were now situated between them, and Danny shook her head at the fact that her Guardians, beings tens of thousands of years her seniors, still behaved so badly as to need that kind of treatment.

"'Dweeb'?" Bones sounded confused.

"You're idiots."

"Lass, tha's fairly rude, don't ye think?"

"Not as rude as disturbing the peace and yelling at each other right outside _someone else's_ _house_." She folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot, frowning at the pair of them. "If I had anywhere else to go I'd take you both so the Lennox's could get some peace."

"What about yer human friend? Th'one ye had me call?"

"Nathan? 'Buster, are you _kidding?_ I'd have to explain you guys to him, and I'm_ already_ in deep shit with the people at NEST. And I'm not sure how well he'll handle it even if I do. He's nice, but some things just aren't... well, he doesn't handle certain things very well, I guess. And this _definitely_ falls under 'certain things.'" The young woman sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She was getting sidetracked. "This isn't why I came out here. I don't want to argue, and I don't want the pair of _you_ to, either."

Silence abounded, and Danny let out an exasperated sigh.

"I'm not a mind reader! Machine-mind... reader... Whatever. You gotta say something to let me know I'm getting through to you." Big babies.

"_I'm_ listenin', lass, it's jus'-"

"As am I, though your _'friend'_ here-"

Danny groaned as they switched to their techno language again and started bickering. This almost wasn't worth the effort. Ironhide visibly shook before growling something out and then getting drawn in for a second time. She leaned back against the door of the house and folded her arms, expression quite flat. Well, it didn't look like they were going to let up any time soon on their own. The human shook her head and looked at the only silent vehicle left.

"These guys fight over the stupidest shit, huh?"

"True, indeed."

The gents fell into shocked silence before trying to defend themselves; 'He started it-' 'I was just saying that-' 'These two needed to be put in their place-'. The two females ignored them and carried on.

"Do I even want to know what they were actually arguing about?"

"I'm afraid it might lower your IQ, and mine, just to state it."

Roadbuster grumbled audibly. The other two didn't comment on their banter. Danny put on an overly wide smile. "You three done now?" No reply. "Fantastic. Roadbuster, Bonebite, a word if you would deign to humor the human?" It was a similar sickly sweet tone to the one she'd used for Mearing, and neither Guardian made a sound as they rolled after her out behind the barn and transformed to face her in a way that allowed her to see their, well, faces. Once out of earshot and hidden from the others, Danny let the facade drop. "You two really _are_ idiots, you know that?"

Roadbuster looked away, frowning, and Bonebite didn't seem to react.

"I _literally_ just asked you _not_ to argue. Not _thirty seconds_ pass and you're at each other again. Why? I just don't understand it." They both began to speak, and the moment they almost simultaneously mentioned 'the war' she raised a finger to shut them up.

"All the crap about 'the war' is really starting to get to me. It was bad, I know. It destroyed your homeworld. I got that. But you two are my Guardians, the _both_ of you. I really do like each of you and I wish you didn't fight this much. We haven't even been together as a group for more than five hours and I'm having the same conversation I did with you at the start of it!" Her voice rose with each passing statement and by the end of it she was pacing around in a circle, throwing up her hands in impotent frustration.

It was a minute or two until she calmed down long enough to stuff her hands in her pockets and glare at them, waiting for a response or reaction of some sort.

"Lass. Danny. Yer makin' light of an issue that nearly brought m-... _our_ kind to extinction. Ye don't know what yer talkin' abou'. The_ things_ they've done to us over th'vorns-"

"Autobots_ do_ so like to forget every 'little' wrong they ever did to the Decepticons." Bonebite hissed.

"You big fat _wankers! _Shut_up!_" Danny actually did stomp her foot and shout this time and damn did it feel good. "You," She pointed Roadbuster. "He's an _ex-Decepticon_. This is the _last_ time I'm going to say it to you. Get it through your thick metal noggin. And _you_," She pointed at Bonebite. "Stop reacting to what he's saying so much, it's only making things worse. Your old buddies did terrible shit, that much is true, so unless you really _do _believe in their methods you gotta stop defending them. And stop antagonizing him and treat him like a fucking equal. Actually that goes for the _both of you_!"

She stopped, hands clenching as she got herself back under control. Neither Guardian dared look at each other; she had their complete and undivided attention now. About damn time.

"Now, I'm really fucking tired of this. I've been dealing with a lot of moving around and leaving my old haunts and yelling and robots trying to kill each other and friends not getting along and handling _Mearing_ twice in two damn weeks and _I have had it. _I'm going to the park with Annabelle and Sarah and getting some time with _human fucking beings_ and _away _from the pair of you because I _can't deal _with your fucking robot _politics_ and _blood feuds_ right now. I've been in a state of transition for the last _twelve _years of my life and I finally have a place to stay, for _once_, and you're both being _asses to the people taking me in_."

The Lennox house was as much Ironhide and Chromia's home as it was Will's, Annabelle's, and Sarah's, after all. Picking fights with the big black mech didn't seem like a good idea even under the best of circumstances. On his home turf? Please.

Neither of the two spoke, nor moved, and Danny was at least satisfied that she seemed to be getting through to them now. She didn't really _like_ yelling at them but when they were together there didn't seem to be any other way to get their attention. When she'd learned that they were of opposing factions she'd expected some sore topics between them, of course, but she hadn't expected them to end up full-on shouting at each other in the Lennox's front lawn.

"I understand you guys warred, and for a very long time at that. But it's more or less over now. You just don't have the man power- bot power, whatever- to keep this up. You're literally hunting yourselves to extinction, and if you can't see that I really don't know what else to say on the matter. Cool off, work this out, or at least agree to be civil around others. I don't care. I'll see you later."

Her rant done, Danny turned and went around the barn again to go back inside the house. Almost immediately she felt a twinge of regret for being so angry and frustrated and taking it out on them, but it was smothered by those same feelings. She didn't _ask _for Guardians. She didn't _ask_ for them to _fight_ all the time, or ask for Mearing to come and threaten her _freedom_ and insult her. She didn't _ask_ to be forced to keep secrets from her _only_ human friend.

This was petulant, and she knew it, but she was very, very tired and it was a relief to take it out on something. She'd face how selfish that was later. When she could handle it.

* * *

Bonebite

Temperature: 77.2º F/25.1º C. Local time: 14:15. The sky, clear. Lighting, bright

Neither of them had spoken to each other since their Charge had thrown her fit. Roadbuster had glared at him sullenly, nearly melting holes in his chassis with the sheer intensity of his hatred, but had done no further arguing. Bonebite ignored the Wrecker as he stood, stock still, to process what his Charge had told them both.

It was a refreshing reminder that she was no little Sparkling in need of intensive guidance or lacking sense. At least, not all the time. Some of what she'd said had merit, even if he was reluctant to admit it. And, judging from Roadbuster's reaction, the Autobot didn't like it any more than he did.

Ironhide had threatened to dismantle him the moment he showed any signs of hostility to any of the fleshlings within the house, and it'd only been through the reluctant intervention of his sparkmate Chromia that he hadn't followed through during their arguing. And, as she'd made clear, she'd only intervened because they didn't want a brawl so close to the house.

Danny was right about that much, at least; if they were going to argue, they couldn't do it near the house or around the very people that were taking their Charge in. She needed time with her own species and she wouldn't get that if they, her Guardians, drove them all away.

What a pain in the aft it was to admit it, though.

Without a word to the seething green Wrecker, Bonebite abruptly marched off, transforming mid-stride to rest in his spot on the driveway. A breem or two later and Roadbuster had taken his place on the other side of his fellow Autobots. Danny, Sarah, and Annabelle came out of the house and hopped into Ironhide, although the human-sparkling paused to hug the black mech's bumper. If he'd been able to, Bonebite would've rolled his optics.

Annabelle was loud and completely obnoxious, even for an organic. It was one thing to allow affection for Sparklings of their own kind. It was something else entirely to watch a renowned warrior such as Ironhide soften up for a fleshling.

He didn't read too much into how hypocritical that was.

Still, he couldn't ignore the fact that most of his sensors were trained on the black Autobot as he backed out of the driveway and drove off down the road with his Charge inside. From what he could tell, Roadbuster seemed even less pleased than he, and Bonebite felt some grim satisfaction that at least his enemy was in no better state.

Wreckers were cowards, anyway. Couldn't do a fragging thing unless they were in a group and mobbed their opponents. The fact that they also happened to be very effective? He ignored that. All that mattered was that he thought less of Roadbuster because of it, and that was on top of being a bleeding-spark Autobot.

"_If you two bits of slag are just going to sit here and stew, you have even less CPU power than I thought. Go do something productive for a change."_

Ah… right. Chromia. It figured that the only, or one of the only, surviving femmes was the ornery mate of Ironhide. Although, she was a powerful warrior in her own right, and with medical blocks all over his systems Bonebite wasn't keen on picking a fight with her.

"_Ye're one to talk, Chromia. I bet ye haven't even been t'check in with Optimus in th' last two weeks."_

_"Clean up duty in three different countries on top of swapping shifts with Prowl to watch over this fraggin' 'Con and having to chart out Decepticon movements, all within those two weeks? I'd say I've earned a day to myself." _

"_...Point taken."_

Roadbuster reversed out of the driveway and left without further comment. Bonebite would've gloated in seeing the Autobot take off with his- what was that charming human expression? - tail between his legs, except for the fact that now he was the sole beneficiary of Chromia's attentions. On top of that, of course, was the constant nagging of his Guardian protocols, as though he needed reminding that Danny was not within his immediate vicinity. Well, there was a way to remedy both things.

He, following the Autobots, reversed out of the driveway, very aware that Chromia had her systems locked in on him should he try anything. Not that he was going to, of course, considering the fact that she could crush him in an astrosecond, but her scrutiny chaffed.

"_We've got eyes on you. Remember that."_ She growled out as he reached the street. _"One _inch_ out of line and I'll use your head as a hood ornament."_

Bonebite thought it best not to respond as he left the Lennox property.

* * *

The city was, as usual, bustling with activity. To use another human expression, it was like watching a disturbed anthill. In spite of the many vehicles and the loads of foot-traffic, it wasn't very hard to keep tabs on Roadbuster, Ironhide, and his Charge.

For one thing, once they arrived at the park the humans had more or less stayed within the same area and made it easier to keep track of them. Secondly, now that his sensors and systems had been maintenanced, he could actually scan for energon signals again. Seeing as both Ironhide and Roadbuster were in good, healthy condition, they were rather easy to find.

Bonebite had parked himself in a parking lot two blocks from the park, well out of the way of other vehicles and out of sight of the humans. If Danny realized he'd followed her she might do something drastic to get space to herself, and he'd rather not risk it. The fact that Roadbuster was here, on the other side of the park and also out of sight, would not save him from her wrath.

They'd come to a sort of mutual agreement, he and the Wrecker, at least for the moment. They were both there because of their protocols and they were going to stay away from each other in the meantime. That didn't prevent the ex-Decepticon from keeping several sensors trained on the green fragger and the big black warrior near the park. He didn't think they'd attack him, but he did not trust them enough to ignore them.

What was left of his processing power was keeping tabs on Danny. He could just hear some of what she said when she raised her voice, and her heat signature was often frolicking around with the human-sparkling Annabelle's. At the very least she seemed less angry when around the Lennox family.

A police car drove by, sirens on, which was the only reason he even registered its existence. It ran the light at the intersection next to the park and nearly clipped an oncoming car as it swerved to cross the other side of the street. That got his full attention. As a huge van and truck followed after it he abruptly revved his engine and skidded out of the parking lot.

Slag, slag, _slag_, he couldn't believe it but he was hoping Ironhide was paying better attention that he.

The trio was driving right through the park, ruining the green turf and smashing shrubs flowerbeds as they went. Most of the humans screamed and managed to get out of the way, although a few unlucky ones got crushed under the trio of Decepticons as they transformed about halfway across. He himself was only just reaching the intersection, forced to avoid vehicles and human traffic.

Ironhide revved his powerful engines and transformed, bellowing a challenge and raising his massive cannons as Sarah picked up Annabelle and ran across the street with Danny on her heels to get out of the way of the coming fight.

Roadbuster was already pulling up. A fast mech such as he didn't need much warning to get his aft over here, and Bonebite was grudgingly grateful for that much. If anything, the green fragger was good for getting the others to safety. Even Ironhide had come to that conclusion, apparently.

"_Roadbuster, get them out of here."_

"_Aye, sir."_

Bonebite would have thought more on the lack of complaint from the green mech if everything hadn't gone to the Pit right then. The three mechs, none of whom he'd had time to identify, sprung into action after blustering and posturing. Two went right for the great black warrior who, quite frankly, looked simply thrilled to be in a fight again, while one leapt at Roadbuster as the humans were getting inside. Bonebite changed course spun sideways, swiping the legs out from underneath the Decepticon as he landed with a hand outstretched. The sharp claw just grazed Roadbuster, chipping the mech's paint even as the Wrecker's wheels spun underneath him to escape with his precious cargo.

"Bonebite?!" Danny stuck her head out of the driver side window as Roadbuster sped off down the street, looking back at him with a mixture of surprise and fear, as best as he could read her face.

No time to worry about that with a hostile Decepticon practically on top of his head.

He reversed, tires screeching, as the Decepticon tried to saw off the front of his alt form. He transformed, rolling backwards to land on the balls of his feet, and faced down his opponent with a snarl. There was no plan or tactics involved here; his weapons systems were offline and he couldn't grapple effectively with the blocks in place. The whole thing was doomed from the start and the only reason he'd entered the brawl to begin with was because everything inside him, all the way to the furthest reaches of his circuitry, demanded that he do so. Not to help the Autobots, (his very wiring shuddered disgustedly with that thought) but to protect his Charge.

Figured that it'd be a fleshling that got him killed.

Now that he was able to, however, he hesitated in retaliating against the Decepticon. He recognized the mech; more than recognized, he'd once called him friend. And from the look on his opponent's face, he recognized Bonebite as well.

"_Barricade?"_

"_Bonebite." _The black and white mech had stilled, poised as though to launch at him but clearly thinking twice._ "They didn't mention that you'd be here."_

"_You know how they feel about attachments." _Bonebite had to duck as a severed arm went flying by his head. Ironhide was having fun. _"This is probably a test for you as much as it is an actual mission."_

"_Possibly. Or maybe they never conceived that one such as you would ever fight on the side of _the enemy_." _Barricade growled, beginning to circle. It was obvious that he was having reservations about killing his former comrade but was in the process of rationalizing.

"_Not for _them._"_ Spat the ex-'Con as he, too, began circling. _"For my Charge."_

Barricade's optics flashed and widened. _"Your _Charge?_ Surely you're joking."_

"_Why in the Pit would I jest about something of that nature?"_ He had to spin out of the way as Barricade lunged for him.

"_I know you never deleted your protocols, my friend,"_ Barricade began as he shook his head. _"But to actually take on a fleshling as your Charge? It will never replace what you had."_

"_I never meant for her to." _Old wounds never truly healed, and being reminded of them hurt. The suggestion that he'd use Danny as a surrogate didn't compute; he simply could never forget, no matter what he deleted off his memory banks. Nor did he want to._ "Slag, I never meant for it to happen at all, and yet, here we are."_ He spread his hands to highlight the situation. _"Why are you here, did you ever wonder? Was it for the Lennox family, or Ironhide? Was it for my Charge? Or were you sent to kill me like so many others?"_

He knocked aside the next blow and ducked under Barricade's arm, quickly turning to keep his front to the Decepticon. The attacks were all half-hearted at best, and Bonebite took that as a blessing. He didn't want to fight his old friend. As to their reasons, he couldn't guess, except that the ex-'Con doubted it was the latter or they wouldn't have bothered with Ironhide. Nobody picked a fight with that mech unless they had to, save perhaps Megatron or a Prime.

"_We were sent for the females of the Lennox grouping, and any other insects they had with them. I told those idiots we wouldn't be able to handle Ironhide but, as usual, they didn't listen."_ Barricade lowered his weapon and just looked at him, obviously having trouble processing the new information. _"That creature was _your Charge?_"_

"_Yes."_ Bonebite lowered his hands as well and they stopped circling. _"And I will protect her until I offline for good. You know what being a Guardian means."_ The head of one of the other two Decepticons rolled between them, coming to a stop facing Barricade. Crushed with three of the four optics gone and the last hanging out by wires, energon spilling from the stump of the neck. _"Get out of here, my friend. I can't protect you from Ironhide and he won't be distracted much longer."_

Barricade hesitated, then half turned, his weapons slipping back into his subspace. The short fight between them, if it could even be called that, was over. _"I'd suggest you return with me, but..."_

"_They never forgive." _Bonebite nodded slightly. Yes, he understood very well. _"That doesn't bode well for you, in fact. You know they don't like missions gone awry."_

"_They sent me against Ironhide. He destroyed my companions, I left to report back with my frame intact. I'm sure Starscream of all mechs could appreciate that."_

Bonebite let out a half-hearted chuckle. _"I'm sure he would. Even so, I wish you luck in convincing him."_

"_I must admit, I miss your company."_

That was somewhat huge. A Decepticon revealing a weakness, an attachment to someone or something else, was a huge sign of trust. Bonebite lowered his head slightly, agreeing. None of the Autobots would ever be a close friend, not with the way they all looked at him and treated him. Not with all the bad blood. Even among the Decepticons friendship and trust were rare things. Barricade had been the only mech Bonebite had ever become close enough to reveal his secrets to. They'd worked well when put together on missions and Barricade had been the one he'd broken down in front of after the attack on the neutral city. Comradeship like that... He likely wouldn't ever have that again as long as things remained the way they were.

They both turned and watched Ironhide beat the slag out of the last Decepticon, and Barricade decided it was now or never if he wanted to leave with his frame intact. The Decepticon turned and moved a few paces before stopping to turn a little and look at Bonebite. _"They're after you, battle-brother. I don't know what it is you know or that you've done, but watch your aft. Not all will be as reluctant to offline you as I."_ A quick transformation later and Barricade was screeching off down the road.

Not a moment too soon; Ironhide came over to stand by Bonebite, the crushed spark of his final opponent in his hand.

"_Fraggin' 'Cons."_ The mech growled out in his deep baritone, grinding the spark in his hand to dust. _"Roadbuster said he's sorry to miss the party."_

"_Is Danny unharmed?"_

"_The humans are all safe. But what I want to know is what were you doing here in the first place?" _The weapons specialist leaned down, getting into Bonebite's personal space, his one good optic narrowed dangerously. _"Did you know this was going to happen?"_

"_No."_ Snapped the ex-'Con, turning to face the Autobot weapons specialist head-on. _"I don't like what you're implying."_

"_It just seems a little convenient that you're still standing here with your aft intact even with medic blocks in place. I saw you talkin' with that other 'Con. Feeling homesick? Or did you have a hand in this?"_

"_And risk my own Charge?"_ Bonebite's hands curled into fists; he didn't like being accused of such conspiracy. _"I had no idea they'd be here, and that is the honest to AllSpark truth."_

"_Mm."_ Ironhide leaned back, clearly not entirely buying it but dropping it for now._ "I'm headed back to NEST to talk to Optimus. Head straight back to the Lennox house, and mark me,"_ The black mech raised a finger to point it between Bonebite's optics. _"We'll know if you decide to... take a detour."_

The ex-'Con had to lock his jaw in place for a moment to keep his words in check before nodding ever so slightly. It was frustrating. He couldn't earn the trust of the Autobots, nor did he want it. But he needed it if he was ever to have anything akin to a normal, peaceful life. Or even privacy. Primus, what he wouldn't give to just go and drive out somewhere quiet to think by himself.

Satisfied, Ironhide transformed and drove off, leaving the ex-Decepticon alone with his anger.

* * *

Danny

"I can't believe you two followed me."

"Leadfoot said th'same thing."

"And Decepticons just attacking us in the middle of broad daylight, too?" Danny rubbed her temples, glancing over at the passenger seat. Sarah had Annabelle in her lap and while the little girl seemed a bit shaken, she didn't seem traumatized for life. Luckily, nothing much had happened. In fact, almost as soon as they'd noticed the Decepticons coming Roadbuster had been screeching into the road behind them, yelling for them to get in.

Sarah's cellphone began ringing, and the woman had to shift her grip on Annabelle to pull it out of her pocket. Danny and Roadbuster lowered their voices to keep from bothering her.

"If the other Wreckers were against you following me then why the heck did you?"

"Protocols, lass. Ye know that. And it's a good thing I did or ye'd not have gotten out of there in time."

"Yeah, well. Thanks for that, by the way."

Her green Guardian snorted. "Wish I'd gotten t'fight." He grumbled with no real animosity. "But yer welcome."

"Danny?" Sarah had her hand over the speaker of her cell when the young woman looked over. "Will wants to talk to you."

"Oh, uh, sure." She took the phone awkwardly, unsure of what Lennox would want to speak to her about. She hadn't done anything, and for details on the attack Sarah would've been enough. Right? "Hello?"

"Did you send anyone an email recently?"

"I don't even have an email address to send one _with_. Why?"

"You have a guest. He says he got a message about you with our address attached to it. Be ready for him when you walk in."

Danny frowned after Will hung up, looking out the window. Someone had sent a message to some guy about her? With Lennox's address, no less? This didn't bode well. Judging from the look on Sarah's face as Danny handed the phone back to her, the woman felt similarly.

Roadbuster eventually pulled into the driveway of the Lennox household, mentioning to Danny as she got out that Bonebite was on his way back as well. She nodded, pat the hood of his alt form, and went inside.

Lennox and a man she'd never seen before were waiting for her. They both stood up as Sarah, Annabelle, and Danny walked through the front door. The Lennox's exchanged a look before Sarah excused herself and took Annabelle off to the kitchen, despite the girls protests about not being able to meet the new person. Lennox turned to the young woman now.

"Danny, this man is Chad Orburn, the man who received that email about you. Orburn, this is Danny Coleson." Danny took the moment to look the man over. Dark brown hair, freckles, thin lips, and brown eyes with bags underneath them. An overworked desk jockey from the looks of it. Still, she smiled politely and held out her hand.

The newcomer had stopped with wide eyes, staring at her with no further response. Danny fidgeted and dropped her hand. Lennox crossed his arms.

"The one thing I can say," He finally began, stepping closer. "Is that you really do look just like your mother."

* * *

Roadbuster

_'Did he just say her mother? Did he know her?'_

_'Sounds like.'_

_'Can we swap places, Chromia? I want t'see in.'_

_'Eavesdropping on a personal conversation not enough, mm?'_

_'Mute it. Yer listenn' in too ye know.'_

_'Not my fault they forgot to close the window.'_

Still, Chromia moved to the far end of the driveway, giving Roadbuster her spot by the window. As slowly as he could manage so that he didn't alert the humans to his moving around, he twisted his wheels sideways and got into place.

As luck would have it, though, Bonebite pulled up beside him, swerving around Chromia and giving her a wide berth before slowing down as he passed the newcomer's car. Probably scanning it to see if it was another Autobot. Roadbuster felt quite smug in the knowledge that, as of the moment, he knew more about what was going on with their Charge than the slaggin' ex-Decepticon wanker did. And since neither of them were keen on opening up a comm line, the ex-'Con would just have to sit there in the dark.

At least until the humans inside spoke again.

And yet the mech next to him surprised him by opening up a comm with Chromia of all 'bots. She, in turn, made the conversation a group venture by linking comms with his own.

_'What happened?'_

_'A man dropped in half an hour ago. Said he got a message about your Charge.' _Explained the femme. It was obvious from both their tones that neither of them were particularly happy about using comms to communicate with each other. But the protocols were powerful motivators, he supposed.

_'Has he said anything else?'_

_'Aye. Might know somethin' about Danny's mother.' _Roadbuster put in, keeping most of his attention on the humans inside.

_'Her femme creator?'_ There was a brief pause in the conversation._ 'Danny said she didn't have one.'_

_'Of course she had one, ye twit. Where the Pit d'ye think she came from? Just sprung from a hole in th'ground?_' Snapped the Wrecker.

_'Not _anymore_, you idiotic green fragger.'_

_'Both of you, mute it.'_ Hissed Chromia. _'She had a mother at some point in the past, obviously. She doesn't talk about it either because she doesn't remember or because it's painful. Either way, you'll learn more about the matter by listening than by yelling at each other over my comm.'_

The thing about comms of this nature was that, the closer the two parties were physically or the longer they'd had a bond (even one so simple as an ally bond with which to contact each other over vast distances) the more both parties could experience some of what the other was feeling. It was the reason the Decepticon had kept very much to himself even when it would've been easier to open a temporary comm, such as this one, to communicate silently.

Both Roadbuster and Chromia could feel the unease that went through the ex-'Con simply because he was, quite literally, only a few feet away from the both of them, and the Wrecker grew suspicious. Bonebite reacted to Roadbuster's feelings even before the green mech had been able to transmit any words. The emotion-transfer worked both ways, after all.

_'I don't like it.'_ The mech growled. _'The whole situation. Who's he to turn up out of nowhere, claiming to know her femme creator that she hasn't had for many Terran years? And how'd he get the Lennox address anyway?'_

_'We don't know.' _Admitted Chromia._ 'We're having Wheeljack figure out where the message came from.'_

The ex-Decepticon's only response was a low growl as he shut the comm from his side. As little communication over the comms as possible, apparently. That suited Roadbuster just fine. At least now they could all settle down and listen. Should be good.


	8. Unease

**Author's Note:** -crawls online-

-leaves this here-

-retreats into den of solitude-

* * *

**Guardian**

**8- Unease**

Danny

"**Do you know why you're in trouble, Danielle?"**

"**Levi made fun of me about not having a mom anymore. So I hit him."**

"**Don't you know that hitting people is wrong? Do you want me to call your father?"**

**The tiny child sniffled, but the defiance never left her. "But making fun of me for not having a mom is wrong too. "**

"**The principal is talking to him about that already. But you _did_ have a mom, so just ignore his teasing from now on. In fact, you're lucky." Fake, cheerful words. "You've had _several_ moms now."**

"**But not my _real_ mom." Insisted the young child. "And if I did have a real mom, then where is she?" Danielle clutched the front of her overly-large shirt, freckled face scrunched into an upset frown. "Why didn't she come take me back?"**

**The adult let out an exasperated sigh. "She's _dead_, Danielle. She died when you were born." Flat, matter-of-fact words from a person who neither knew nor cared about her. The little girl lowered her head, her tiny hands tightening their grip on her shirt.**

"**I don't have a daddy, either."**

**The faceless adult tilted its head. "You don't think Mister Robertson is your daddy?"**

**The little girl shook her head vigorously. "_No_. And neither was Mister Gein, or Mister Kenson. If I had a daddy, a _real_ daddy, he woulda come for me. He _didn't_."**

"**Maybe he couldn't. Nobody even knows who your father _is._ He might be dead, too."**

**The girl glared up at the adult through her lashes. She didn't know if he was dead or alive, but she did know, deep within her very bones, that her father would never be a good part of her life either way. All she could ever feel towards the men who posed as a dad to her, even including the very idea of the man who'd fathered her, was anger. Pure, simple anger. Even a child could hate a concept, and Danny did not like her fathers. Any of them.**

"**I _don't have_ a daddy."**

* * *

"Danny? Are you alright?" Lennox's words were what brought her back to the here and now. She swallowed and nodded, looking between him and Orburn. Too late to hide any kind of surprise she felt.

"You knew my mother?"

"Yes. I knew Trisha since... About senior year in college. We ended up on the debate team together." Orburn looked her over again, and Danny grit her teeth and bore it. It always set her on edge to get looks of any kind from someone she didn't know, even if there was nothing dangerous in their demeanor. "Didn't know she had a daughter. I was told she died about two decades ago."

"Something like that." Muttered Danny, folding her arms over her chest. "Why're you here?"

Orburn looked uncomfortable. "See, when I say I 'knew' Trisha... Well, the email I got gave me very specific dates about her death- your birth, in fact- and the numbers add up to make this possible." Danny began to get a sinking feeling, more so than what she'd been experiencing before. A part of her knew what he was going to say, but she had to ask. _Had to, _the way kids had to pick their scabs or look through locked keyholes.

"Make what possible?" Her entire body was tense, as though readying for a blow. Lennox didn't move, picking up on the tension and obviously having a guess as to what was about to happen himself.

"Danielle, I might just be your biological father."

She very much wanted to run, screaming, out of the house and never come back again. It wasn't a logical response but this wasn't really a logical situation for her. Instead her fingers clenched her biceps and she locked her joints to keep from so much as twitching.

"...Might be?"

"I want a blood test done, just to be sure, but if it's true..." Orburn smiled, though Danny was almost sure that it was forced. "Then I suppose we'll be seeing more of each other."

Ten minutes later, after Lennox had walked Orburn out to the car and the man was gone down the road, Lennox came back inside and put his hand on her shoulder. She was hugging herself now, mind running through the day's events in an attempt to figure out just what the hell was going on in her life.

"Need anything?" Lennox asked gently. Danny looked at him, eyes wide, and shook her head slightly. Just time to process this would be nice. He took the hint and left the room after giving her shoulder a quick, comforting squeeze.

She began pacing. It was a habit that helped her think when she was emotionally compromised, and at this very moment she was doing her best just to keep from pitching a fit. Who would've sent Orburn her information? And with the Lennox address, no less? Wasn't that like a highly classified government secret, considering the position Lennox himself had with the diplomatic situation with the extraterrestrial robots? She nearly bumped into the coffee table on her fourth circuit around the room and let out a groan, head in her hands.

Maybe she should have been happy. Thrilled, even. It wasn't every day that a parent just came out of the blue and offered to embrace her(even if it seemed a _bit_ false). But something felt off about this to her and it made her anxious. Too many internalized reasons and rationalizations about _not_ having any family and this guy just came in and disrupted that. Maybe he really _was_ her father, though. And if he was maybe... Maybe he really _wanted_ her. But who had told him?

One, and only one, real possibility came into her mind. But she chose to wait, to process more and think on it and try- try, and hard- to calm down. It'd been a long day and her emotions were already fraying, and the more she thought on this _really_ _fucking_ _startling_ development the more agitated she became.

* * *

Bonebite

Temperature: 68.2º F/20.1º C. Local time: 09:01. The sky, overcast. Lighting, rising.

His Charge hadn't come out all night, not even to bid them good evening as she had for the last two weeks. Even in his case, she'd made sure to get in touch with Ratchet to talk to him before going to sleep. Lennox, instead, had emerged from his dwelling to inform them that she was alright, but please, don't stalk around the house looking for her. Roadbuster had dejectedly come back to the driveway from his spot by the kitchen window. Ironhide, having come back from his meeting with Optimus late in the evening, said nothing on the matter. At least, not out loud.

Morning came. Lennox left in Ironhide to go to work. The femmes of the Lennox family left in Chromia, returning later in the morning with groceries for the coming week.

The green fragger left with their Charge after she came out of the house and jumped into him. Bonebite began reversing to follow them but was cut off by Chromia.

"_Move. I can't leave her alone after that." _He was not going to bother with comms again if he could help it, even if Chromia had been nothing but courteous with him. Sort of.

"_Maybe that's what she needs right now."_ Countered the blue femme. She continued over him, cutting off his protesting._ "That information that she just received is hard enough for her to process, and her mind doesn't go at the speeds ours do. She needs space to think things over for a while."_

Bonebite fell silent. He could understand what Chromia was getting at. From the look on her face, his Charge had just suffered a fairly heavy blow, emotionally. What he didn't understand was why she'd gone off in Roadbuster of all mechs. That violent-tempered loudmouth was the last being he wanted in the company of their reeling human. Wasn't she by now aware of the Wrecker's temperament?

Chromia almost seemed to read his mind. _"Roadbuster is rash and quick to fight, true, but he also knows when to keep quiet. He's a _good_ mech. He'll take care of her until she comes back."_

"_But why did she go to NEST at all? We only just left there yesterday."_ He didn't want to go back there just to get locked in the medbay again, and he couldn't imagine Danny was keen on seeing that human woman again this soon either. It didn't make sense.

"_The message that man received? The one claiming she was his father?"_

Ah. _"It came from them."_

"_Yes. Likely, she's gone to confront the source of her troubles. For better or worse, I can't yet say."_

Bonebite rumbled to himself. He didn't like that. It didn't seem wise, especially given the threats that female had made towards Danny. But he understood ___why _his Charge wanted, and needed, some space to come to terms with her new situation___. _He just hoped she wouldn't get herself into too much trouble with that poisonous human woman at NEST.

* * *

Danny

Not one peep came from Roadbuster the whole drive back to the base. It was unusual and now that she'd had time to cool off a little Danny wondered why he was so quiet. She didn't confront him, though, until he turned and drove into the fields along the side of the highway.

"Roadbuster!"

"Aye, lass?" Innocent as could be. It would've made her smile if her nerves hadn't been strained already.

"NEST base? Remember?"

"Ah, right." He showed no sign of turning around or otherwise going back towards the NEST base. She glared and kicked his console. The Wrecker ignored it. "Ye an' I both know yer not in any state to go face Mearing again."

"But I have to! She's the one- She's got no right to screw around with my business!"

"And ye think yelling at her is going to help?"

"Yes! I- No!" Danny ran a hand over her face. "I don't... know. But I can't just- just let her pull shit like that. Okay? She doesn't know what she's..." The young woman trailed off and sighed, sinking back against Roadbuster's seat as she ran a hand through her hair. The wrecker let the silence grow for a few seconds to give her time to just breathe down before continuing.

"Why's it so important that ye _have_ to deal with her today? It'd be better if ye were calmer 'bout this. Ye know that."

"Because if I _don't_ deal with her today then..."

Then what? She'd have 'won?' Mearing had already made it clear that she wielded a great amount of power and despite her cocky attitude towards the older woman, Danny was scared that the director really would have her locked up. Or worse, get Optimus to send out the order to kill Bones. She glared and kicked the dashboard again.

"I hate that you have a point."

Roadbuster chuckled. They drove for a good ten or fifteen minutes, neither of them saying much more before he again rolled to a stop, this time firmly in the middle of nowhere. Danny sighed, but relented when he told her to get out and stretch her legs a little, and stepped back to watch him transform. Even in her sour mood it was still pretty damned cool to watch all the parts slide and latch into place to make up his body.

She was surprised, though, when instead of attempting to lecture her some more he simply sat down in the field and remained quiet. Not that Danny could bring herself to say much as she thought over what had happened the other evening.

On top of being the mediator between her two Guardians and being attacked by more giant killer robots she'd had the bomb of her 'real dad' dropped on her. The hell kind of day had that been, anyway? She grumbled a little to herself and kicked a rock through the grass before letting out a long sigh.

"Okay. So, so maybe going to talk to Mearing right now is a bad idea."

"Aye."

"And I should, uh, think over what I'm going to say when I finally do go. If I go."

"_Now_ yer thinkin', lass." Danny looked up in time to see Roadbuster's shit-eating grin before he rubbed a pair of his fingers into her head.

"_Ugh!_ Hey!" She glared at him and smacked his hand away before promptly cursing and shaking her fingers to try relieving the pain. Okay. Metal, not good for her, right. "Prick..."

"Aw, wee lass, did ye hurt yerself badly?"

"Shut up."

They stayed out in the field for a good several hours. At first they'd spoken about inconsequential things; Roadbuster because he wasn't sure how best to bring up the issues and Danny because she hadn't want to talk about it. Eventually the topic shifted over to the Xantium, and from there to space.

Having been part of the crew of the Xantium for millennia ("What? A couple'a yer centuries are nuthin' ta us."), Roadbuster had seen his fair share of space while running around the galaxy and hunting down Decepticons. As she sat cross-legged on his knee, enraptured, he told her stories about how he and his brothers-in-arms had taken down enemies on the fringes of nebulas and wormholes, in zero gravity and on alien worlds, how Leadfoot and Topspin had saved his life numerous times and how he'd saved theirs in return. About those that had fallen over the years, the many comrades he'd mourned and had watched die.

For the first time it really hit Danny that he'd been through so very much more than she could ever truly fathom. He and all of the Autobots, for that matter. They'd been soldiers for longer than human civilizations had existed, lost their friends and family to the senseless fighting that had been raging even before homo sapiens had first walked the earth.

Made her wonder what loses Bonebite had gone through, too.

"How d'ye feel?" Roadbuster's question brought her out of her pensive state and she blinked up at him. He shifted his leg a little so she was a bit higher up, cocking his head to the side.

"Oh, uh..." Not good, per se, but better. She hadn't addressed the problem but she was definitely in a more stable state of mind than before. Not likely to run off and try to get at Mearing any time soon, at least. "I'll be fine. Just wanna head back for now."

The green wrecker smiled and motioned for her to get off before transforming once she was clear of him. "Let's get goin', then."

* * *

Chromia

Chromia and Bonebite were waiting for them in the driveway when they got back around noon. Ironhide was still gone, though she kept a link open to him in the background of her processes. A habit she'd formed after arriving on Earth and reuniting with her sparkmate after vorns of being forced apart by the war.

Danny hopped out of Roadbuster's window with a lot less aggressiveness than when she'd first hopped in during the morning and went inside the house. Both of the Autobots could feel Bonebite radiating curiosity and agitation next to him but the ex-'Con was still too proud to form a link with him directly. Chromia, on the other hand, was not.

'_Will she be well?_'

'_I have no idea. I don' think she'll tear Mearing's head off anymore but I don't think she's set to right just yet._' She could scan Danny's progress through the house by heat signature alone, noting that she'd simply gone straight through and into the backyard. '_'M not good at talkin' feelings. Ye know that._'

'_Mm._' Chromia transformed, twisting to her feet in one fluid movement before walking around the house. '_I'll see what I can do to help her process. Keep an eye on the 'Con for me._'

'_Aye ma'am._' Wreckers always did their jobs, so Chromia didn't bother looking back. Bonebite would be held in check just fine without her there to bully him into passivity.

Danny was sitting out in the yard on a small wooden bench Lennox had set up for his monthly barbecues, though the blue Autobot's approach quickly got her attention. Even without scanning the organic Chromia could tell she was still distressed, although not to the point of last night.

"Uh, yes, missus 'Hide?"

Chromia laughed once she realized what Danny had said. Really? 'Missus Hide'? That was a new one. Ironhide would get a laugh out of that later, too. "It's just Chromia." She assured the human, carefully sitting down away from the small garden and swingset. Even though she was smaller than Ironhide she was not a tiny femme, so she had to be careful with what her limbs did in a world that was build for creatures a third her size. "I wanted to talk to you."

"Oh. Um. Okay." Danny shifted a little in her seat, putting away the small notebook she'd carried out with her.

"How are you taking the news about your father?"

The girl blanched before glaring up at Chromia. "How'd you guys know about that, anyway? S'none of your business and I know I sure as hell didn't tell you."

"It's my business to know what goes on in that household, especially when it involves strangers." And an unfamiliar man walking into that home who'd gotten the address from a strange e-mail was very much worth keeping an eye on. "You didn't answer my question."

"Nope." Danny kicked at the ground a little, frowning. "I just... It's really weird. I never knew my actual family because they didn't know who my father was and my mother had no living relatives. She died a few days after I was born because of some stupid complications or some shit. So I ended up running through the foster care system- which is broken as all hell, by the way- and kinda fell in with other foster kids more than the people trying to take me in." The human sighed and scratched the back of her neck. "Most of'em were actually pretty decent people. I wasn't very grateful to a lot of them... I was just really angry at the fact that none of them were my _family_."

The girl got up now, pacing around in a circle.

"It wasn't until I was older that I figured out the whole 'family doesn't have to be blood' thing but by then I'd kind of... I guess just got really mad at my dad for never showing up. For never coming to get me, for probably not _wanting_ me in the first place. Why else would my mom show up to a hospital alone, right?" She then waved her hands and shook her head. "Anyway, long 'n short of it is that I never really, uh, liked my dad. Even before he _actually_ showed up. And- and the thing is I'm _positive_ Mearing knows all this already."

"A woman such as she has access to a lot of information."

"Yeah." Danny looked up at her. "So why the hell would she think it's a good idea to just drop him on me like that?"

"Didn't you punch her?" Chromia gave the girl a look, and the human flinched a little and rubbed the back of her neck.

"Yeah... Seemed like a good idea at the time." Danny grumbled, going back to pacing. "But I mean... the point of this is just that I don't know how to handle _having_ a dad. And fuck, why am I even getting this worked up over it because he might not even _be_ my dad, right? This could all still be fake." The tone of voice made it clear that she doubted it, though. "And now he's suddenly here and he says he wants to be around and-"

"And why do you feel this is your responsibility?"

"I- what? Of course it is! I can't just... dump the problem on Lennox. Or ignore it."

"Regardless, that doesn't mean you need to give that man any hand-holding." The femme glanced at the house, towards Roadbuster and Bonebite in their unseen parking spots. "If he truly bothers you, you have options to get yourself some space. And if he proves to have less-than-benevolent intentions we can protect you." Chromia's optics went back to the little organic now. "You are part of this household, Danny, at least for now. That puts you under my care as well as that of Ironhide. So don't fret about your safety or comfort," She smiled a little. "We'll keep you safe."

The human had stopped pacing, staring up at Chromia with wide eyes before she nodded and, after a brief hesitation, stepped closer to put a hand on the femme's leg. "Thanks. Really, I mean it. For being willing to protect me and, um, for letting me talk. It helped."

The femme nodded and stood up, nearly crushing a rosebush in the process. "I'm glad to have helped."

* * *

Bonebite

Temperature: 63.3º F/17.4º C. Local time: 21:15. The sky, clear. Lighting, dark.

After Chromia had come back and parked between them again Bonebite noted that his Charge was far less agitated than before. She'd returned to the inside of the dwelling and had stayed there after the fleshling designated 'Lennox' returned with Ironhide.

Roadbuster hadn't spoken a word to him about what had occurred when he'd taken her early in the day, only that they did not go to the NEST base as Danny had intended. Bonebite was, grudgingly, grateful to the green fragger for keeping her from doing something rash.

He did not like that Mearing female but he knew better than to let Danny run wild in her presence, even from his limited knowledge of her. Good to know that the Wrecker had some sense in that thick metal head of his, too.

Evening fast approached, however, and after most of the other humans inside the dwelling had gone into their version of recharge he observed Danny leave her room and disappear further into the house before emerging again in the backyard, if his sensors were accurate. She proceeded to scale the barn a little further afield, perching upon the roof.

He quietly rolled out of the driveway to transform and walked around the dwelling towards the barn himself. Roadbuster growled slightly, disguised as a mildly revving engine, but did not join or stop him.

"You wanna have a _chat_ with me too?" Bonebite heard her grumble as he approached. Her back was to him and she was staring upwards at the stars, the roof of the barn putting her at about shoulder height. He followed her gaze upwards and remained silent. She did seem to like looking at them. "Maybe I should start charging to talk. Be some nice pocket money..."

Bonebite wordlessly began projecting holo-images of star maps and galaxies to envelop her, the bright lights of a universe full of suns floating around her in swirls of the colors of space. She jumped, looking around with no small amount of wonder at the blips of light that he created, all of them slowly revolving with her as the axis.

"Our planet was here." He pointed, catching her attention and directing it to the edge of a nebula off to her right. "Cybertron held this entire sector and had colonies spread out as far as two hundred lightyears away." For a race such as his, where decades could pass without notice, distances such as those were not a big issue to travel.

"Until your war destroyed it all." Her voice was quiet and she did not meet his optics. He merely clicked out an affirmative.

How lucky, how powerful, how _great_ his race had been, right up until they self destructed. And he'd helped, _willingly_ at the time.

"Did you lose anyone close?"

Bonebite cycled air through his systems and did his best to look at her levelly. It wasn't a topic he liked having broached and despite the fact that she was his Charge that did not mean she was privy to every detail of his life. She was an obligation. Not a friend... not _yet_, at least.

"That is none of your concern."

"Roadbuster lost people too, you know. Or well, actually, he just admitted to it." She looked away from him and traced little patterns in the dust and dirt and rust that covered the metal roof. "Other Wreckers. It's just him and Topspin and Leadfoot now. Not to mention all the other 'bots that weren't Wreckers. In a war that long and that brutal I'd imagine everyone's lost someone-"

"Enough."

"So what I mean is… it's okay to talk about it. Or not. Whatever you want, or feel comfortable with or whatever." Bonebite watched her turn back around to look at him again. "You're really cool, Bones. But I hardly know anything about you. Can't we just talk?"

"...Pick your topics more carefully." Not quite turning down the offer.

"Okay. Um," She scooted around to face him, folding her legs underneath her and chewing her lip as she no doubt thought around for something less touchy than 'which of your loved ones were offlined.' "Well, uh, what was it like in the Decepticons?"

Bonebite huffed and cocked his head to the side. "Difficult. You pleased your superiors or they carved out your spark."

"Oh, I- oh, wow. Really?"

"Failure was not well tolerated. Only those of high rank could afford to fail, and even then it depended on what kind of mood Megatron was in at the time." Starscream was an exception, although that was due more to his sycophancy than anything else.

"You've _seen_ Megatron?"

"Of course. Most Decepticons have. He was... very sure to be present during the war." More like doing his best to ensure that everyone knew they were being observed. Better show them the consequences of failure first-hand. As well as, of course, his lust to offline as many Autobots as possible. "He's a skilled fighter. Good enough to fight both Optimus and Sentinel Primes in the city designated Chicago." Of course, Sentinel and Optimus had weakened each other and Megatron had been forced to flee after Optimus offlined Sentinel, but few mechs could say they went against _two_ Primes in any condition and came out functional.

"Oh." Danny whistled, shaking her head. "No wonder Optimus has had such a hard time taking him down."

"Mm."

"When'd you join the Decepticons?"

"Long before Cybertron fell." He had to work to think back that far, before all the agony of the war had nearly crushed him under its weight. "It was during a time of peace. At the time I, like many, believed the Decepticons would bring order to our world and that the Autobots were a group of chaos-bringers who were only stirring up trouble. I took up the Decepticon mantle not long before another bout of fighting, however, and I got to see how incorrect I was, although it took me vorns to accept it."

"You knew they weren't good from the get-go?"

"Denial is a powerful thing."

Danny scoffed and nodded. "No kidding. Did you have any friends? In the Decepticons, before you left?"

"...One."

"Only one?"

"Yes."

"What's their name?"

"It no longer matters." Barricade was still a Decepticon, after all, and he didn't want Danny getting the idea that she could approach him simply because Bonebite had once called the other mech friend. Foolish and rash as she was he wouldn't put it past her to try.

Danny, predictably, pouted. "You're no fun."

"I deleted my fun protocols vorns ago."

"Haha, yeah... Heeyy, hang on a sec, did you just make a _joke?_" A grin split her face as she pointed at his impassive one. "Sweet shit, somebody call the press. Ole stick-up-his-ass himself just did a goddamn funny."

"Are you finished?"

The organic blew a raspberry at him and he cycled out another gust of air, ruffling her short hair with it's force. Still, it was good to see her smiling and laughing and more or less back to her rowdy self. The thought of her having been suffering from such anxiety and aggravation earlier irritated him. Seeing his Charge in distress was already a problem and it'd been less than a blink in time from a Cybertronian standpoint.

Hopefully this wouldn't become a theme.

"Tell me a little more of your history."

"Huh?"

"I've been doing research." To better care for his new Charge. Nevermind the fact that it was mostly unnecessary information at this point. "Do sparklings your age not attend 'college?'"

"Oh. Uh, well," She rubbed the back of her neck, smiling sheepishly. "I, uh, I got really lazy. My grades fell and I dropped out and I couldn't make it back in without a scholarship. And there was no way in hell I was gonna sell my soul to a student loan firm. They keep that shit on tab _forever _and unless I got some ridiculously high-paying job I was never gonna afford to pay off my debt. So I stopped going to college."

"Could you not go to..." He had to search for the correct terms. "'Community college'?"

"Well, sure, but they still need shit like textbooks and materials and stuff that I just couldn't afford."

"Does that make you ill-educated?"

"Shut up. I'm plenty well educated, thank you. I just _choose_ to have my brain function at half-capacity."

He was almost sure she was serious. The look on his face must have given away his incredulity though because she burst out into laughter, waving the issue away and admitting that she was joking. He huffed through his vents again and lightly bumped her shoulder with a fingertip, much to her amusement.

"Will you be well, Danny?" He asked, a breem or two later, after a somewhat companionable silence. Whether he liked it or not he was actually becoming fond of the little fleshling. Not a great deal yet, not enough that he would admit it, but little by little she was setting up space in his spark that went beyond the Guardian protocols that bound him to her.

"I... suppose so. Yeah." She let out a sigh of her own and glanced up at the stars again. "I'm still going to have to talk to Mearing at some point, and I don't know if I'm comfortable dealing with my so-called 'dad', but..." The young human shrugged, looking back at him. "I'm feeling better about it now."

"Good." He offered his hand out to her. "Come. You need to enter recharge for at least eight of your Terran hours and it is already late."

She stuck her tongue out at him again but nevertheless willingly climbed onto his palm. He felt her grip his thumb as he turned around and walked back to the Lennox dwelling, kneeling down to let her hop off by the back door. She turned and gave his thumb a hug, which caught him completely off-guard.

"Thanks for talking with me, Bones. I'm glad you're willing to at least hang out with me a little." She smiled up at him before letting go and turning to move inside. "Sleep well. If you, uh, sleep."

"...Goodnight, Danny." Shaking his head slightly, he got up to go around the house and return to his spot in the driveway, ignoring the way Roadbuster quietly revved at him as he transformed back into his alt mode.

She was no Cybertronian and she sure as the Pit was no sparkling, but Primus, he was fond of her.

* * *

_Is the plan in motion?_

_Yes, and if all goes well we should be in possession of that insect soon._

_Good. The sooner we eliminate this threat to our goals the better._

* * *

Danny

The next day, after Danny returned from getting her blood drawn to run the tests that Orburn had wanted, Roadbuster surprised both her and Bonebite by offering to let them join him at the rebuilding site. Danny, of course, had happily agreed and Bonebite had followed suit a little more cautiously. Apparently the tales of the Wrecker's exploits had reached him and he was wary about being in the middle of a group of them.

'They're only effective in groups, after all,' he'd muttered to her after she'd shot him a questioning look.

It was easy to see why he'd been so uneasy upon arriving at the Xantium.

Neither Topspin nor Leadfoot -especially Leadfoot- had been pleased to see him. Both of them instantly had their massive arsenal of weapons out and were snapping at him in their odd mechanical tongue. Danny frowned and bit her lip. She didn't remember ever seeing them so upset before.

Bones, to his credit, stood perfectly still and looked at them impassively as Roadbuster and the other Wreckers talked and gestured towards him. Eventually the red and the blue mechs gave in to Roadbuster and let Bones off with a few harsh words and gestures before returning to work. Even without speaking their language Danny got the gist of it.

Fuck up and die.

Sweet shit, had Bones been living with that kinda pressure all this time? Wincing a little, she held on to Bones, tightening her grip on his shoulder to keep her balance as they moved towards the ship.

It was further along in construction than when she'd last seen it. The giant piece of machinery that had been the computer was open on one side to allow the Wreckers to install the last of the internal components, and the engines were in place in the framework despite the fact that they didn't look welded into place just yet.

Some of the internal plating was in place, too, with wiring and circuitry lacing everything exposed. If she had to guess she'd say they were a good forty percent done with the ship, although she'd have to see it completed to be sure of her estimate.

"Looks like it's comin' along, huh Buster?"

"Aye. If we keep up this pace, maybe get a few more hands here to help pull it all t'gether, she should be finished in a month'r two."

"Dang." That seemed soon, at least for her. Of course, they were dozens of times her size and thousands of times more powerful, on top of knowing what they were doing. Building a spaceship of that scale was probably like setting up a computer for her. A very high-tech, space-flight capable computer. Right.

Bones had gone quiet, though, and she nudged his cheek lightly with her elbow.

"Hey, Bones, what do you think?"

"I... believe they are working efficiently." He looked over the arching form of the Xantium, expression more unreadable than normal. "It will be ready within a few of your Terran months. I agree."

What an odd way to put it. Danny cocked her head at him and he ignored her, so she went back to watching the Wreckers work. Even with the somewhat hostile glares from Topspin and Leadfoot and the much more speculative glances from Roadbuster, she hoped it'd be a fun visit. She enjoyed the company of the Wreckers and she just wanted, however wistfully, for them to at least not kill each other before the day was over.

"It'd be nice to go into space someday. Think that thing'll be safe for me to fly in?"

"'Course, lass." Roadbuster looked over and grinned. "With our top grade engineering ye'd be perfectly safe in th' Xantium. I could pro'lly convince Optimus to let me take ye up with us to the moon when we get th' Ark."

"The _moon?_" A wide grin split her face and she just about hopped in place on Bones' shoulder excitedly at the prospect, which just got a laugh out of Buster and even Topspin. The _moon!_

Her musings, along with the fact that he was normally not a talkative mech anyway, left her mostly unaware that Bones said barely two dozen words the entire morning.


End file.
